Libre-échange euro-méditerranéen. Marché de dupes ou pari sur l'avenir ?

Euro-Mediterranean Free-Trade. Fool’s Bargain or Bet on the Future ?
Europe and the Mediterranean countries have entered into the path of association. They have decided to develop political and social cooperation and to create zones of free-trade. The agreements of association, already concluded or in process of negotiation, portend the gradual putting in place of industrial free-trade, along with the increase of financial help from the Union. Some reservations have been raised, nonetheless, expressing a dose of skepticism to the effect that free-trade may be a fool’s bargain the gains of which would go in fact solely to Europe. There is indeed a risk that the breaks provoked by this opening could prevent fragile Mediterranean economies from gaining by the liberalisation. And in this case Europe, too, would lose. The regional project is betting on a future created jointly by Mediterranean countries and the European Union. The latter will simultaneously have by to 1) encourage the Mediterranean opening so that the option of gradualism does not lead to an adjournment of the reforms, 2) intensify cooperation in order to contain sources of imbalances, and finaly 3) get over its own reticence to open its markets more widely to Mediterranean agricultural products.