MEDA program is the major financial instrument of Euro-Mediterranean partnership, EU official
Regional-Morocco-European Union, Politics, 2/11/1999

The MEDA program is the major financial instrument of Euro-Mediterranean partnership launched by the 1995 Mediterranean conference of Barcelona, Spain, said Paul Bonnefoy, a member of the European commission delegation in Rabat.

The EU representative, who was addressing a conference on European Funds in Morocco, said since MEDA was launched, funds granted to Morocco went three times higher.

He added that in the period between 1996 and 97, the program has earmarked Morocco for an annual 150 million euros, instead of the 44 million euros projected initially for 1991-96. The total amount of the MEDA program stands at 610 million euros.

He explained that up to 1996, cooperation between Morocco and the European Union was based on a non-reciprocal trade accord to facilitate the access of Moroccan products to the European market, in addition to financial protocols.

He went on the four five-year financial protocols were concluded between the two sides over a 20-year period (1976-96) for a total amount of 1.1 billion ecus. However, he said, these programs proved inefficient as almost half of the funds went to food security, a sector that is only one of the important factors for Morocco's development.

For the EU delegate, the association agreement signed between Morocco and the European Union in 1996, as part of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership process launched by the 1995 Barcelona conference, aims to promote a more global cooperation between the EU and third Mediterranean countries that integrates, in addition to economic and trade aspects, a political, cultural and social component. The agreement is actually the bilateral translation of Euro-Mediterranean partnership.

At the financial level, he said, cooperation is now based on the MEDA program which has become the major financial instrument of Euro-Mediterranean partnership.

He further stressed that the MEDA-Morocco program comprises two major axes: socioeconomic balance and economic transition. Socioeconomic balance addresses projects of rural infrastructure, water, sanitation and roads, in addition to the Mediterranean bypass that links Tangiers (northern Morocco) and Saidia (northeastern Morocco), part of which will be financed by the European Commission (80 million euro). This axis also comprises projects in basic education, health, rural development for a needed investment of 320 million euros.

The second major axis of the MEDA-Morocco program is economic transition that seeks to support the implementation of the association agreement and the free-trade zone for which 290 million euros were earmarked.

The conference was held part of the Moroccan-French week (Feb.6-13) sponsored by the French embassy, a private trade school, the association of the Tangiers-industrial zone and an economic magazine.

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