Algiers hosts Maghreban union follow-up committee

The follow-up committee of the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) opened works of its 35th session today in Algiers to assess the activities of Maghreban institutions and make proposals to reactivate the union.

The follow-up committee, made up of the ministers or secretaries of state in charge of the UMA affairs, will also prepare the coming session of the UMA foreign affairs ministers council.

The UMA, set up in Marrakesh in 1989, groups Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia.

The opening session of the two-day meeting was marked by addresses of the heads of delegations of all the member countries in addition to the address by the UMA secretary general.

All heads of delegations have stressed the need to reactivate the structures of the union that they described as a civilizational and strategic project in view of the development and cooperation-related challenges that the countries of the region must take up in an era marked by globalization and setting up of regional groupings.

After the opening session, the meeting was carried on behind closed doors.

The Moroccan delegation is led by secretary general of the ministry of foreign affairs and cooperation, Mohamed Rachad Bouhlal. It also includes Morocco's ambassadors to Tunis and Tripoli and the head of the UMA department at the ministry of foreign affairs and cooperation.

The UMA has been paralyzed for years due to strained relations between Morocco and Algeria over the Sahara issue and due to Libya's criticism of the attitude adopted by the other UMA members in the Lockerbie crisis opposing Tripoli to western countries.

Recent developments in the Maghreban region, especially the election of a new president in Algeria and the settlement of the Lockerbie issue, are seen as potential factors for the reactivation of the Maghreban process.