Throughout his entire political career, Pedro Sánchez has always opted to transform crises into opportunities. Now also, in the face of the armed conflict unleashed between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
As acting president of the Council of the EU, the Spanish president proposed last Tuesday to his European counterparts, meeting urgently by videoconference to evaluate the situation in the Middle East, to use the platform of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), which celebrates its next summit in Barcelona on November 27, as “a good opportunity to take advantage of” to relaunch dialogue in the region. In this forum, heir to the 1995 Barcelona process, “both Israel and Palestine sit on equal terms around the table,” Sánchez remarked.
And after settling the diplomatic incident suffered with Israel, in the face of accusations from the Tel Aviv embassy in Madrid for the alleged alignment of the ministers of Unidas Podemos with Hamas terrorism, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, also highlighted That same Tuesday, the opportunity that next month's meetings in Barcelona of the EU/Southern Neighborhood and UfM summit may represent, to promote this dialogue in search of peace, security and stability in the region. “In light of events in the Middle East, they take on even greater relevance,” he stressed.
Although caution and prudence are required in the Government, waiting to see how the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip evolves these days, and the coming weeks. The scenario is uncertain and very volatile, they acknowledge, but Sánchez's commitment to promoting the path of dialogue in the region, taking advantage of the Barcelona summit, is firm.
During his speech yesterday at the Cairo summit, convened by the Egyptian president, Abdul Fatah al Sisi, Sánchez did not expressly allude to the next UPM meeting in Barcelona, before the twenty international leaders gathered. But he did refer to the 1991 Madrid conference, which was the prelude to the 1993 Oslo agreements to which he also alluded. Then came the 1995 Euro-Mediterranean summit – which brought together in Barcelona the then Israeli Foreign Minister, Ehud Barak, and the historic president of the Palestinian Authority, Yasir Arafat –, whose process was in turn the seed, already in 2008, of the Union for the Mediterranean. “The international community has shown in the past that if there is political will, there is a future. We must take advantage of all opportunities to promote dialogue and peace,” Sánchez defended yesterday in Cairo.
The headquarters of the UfM secretariat in Barcelona are also now opting for caution, pointing out that until a week before the meeting scheduled for November 27, it will be difficult to know which countries will attend, in the context of the evolution of the conflict. But the logistics have already been put in place for an event that, although it is held annually and to which the 43 foreign ministers of the countries represented are invited, is now being convened in an extremely complex scenario. As indicated, apart from the agenda that was being worked on before the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, the agenda is open to introducing any political issue if the co-presidency of the UfM and the secretariat so understand. of this organism. A co-presidency made up of the EU External Action Service, headed by Josep Borrell, and Jordan. This, therefore, is the approach.
At the meeting, and in addition to the decision made by the co-presidency and the secretariat on the agenda, all the ministers – or ministerial representatives – take the floor, so any issue can be introduced into the agenda by each country. referring to the conflict in the Middle East. The UfM is made up of the member states of the EU and the North African and Middle Eastern states of the Mediterranean area.
In the ministerial meetings that have been held in recent years, the Foreign Minister of Palestine and an Israeli participation with different ranks have regularly participated. The difficulties in dialogue in this forum were reflected in the first years (2008), when some Arab countries opposed the attendance of the then Israeli minister, Avdigor Liebermann, due to his political positions. But this period was over.
Now the scenario is more complex and according to the analysis of the director of the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), Senen Florensa, the UfM must try to send a political message. If not, there is a risk of a "total deadlock" in what Euro-Mediterranean collaboration means.
