Wednesday, October 22, 2008

"The Mediterranean Union"

A seemingly innocuous and praiseworthy initiative by the EU to form a "Mediterranean Union" has a potentially dangerous outcome. A large meeting was held in Paris in July under the sponsorship of Pres. Sarkozy of 45 countries, most represented by Heads of State or Foreign Ministers, to bring together the EU and the Mediterranean region. Because of fears that he was intending to actually start a MU comparable to the EU, Pres. Sarkozy changed the title of the organization subtly to "The Union of the Mediterranean."
This was not a new concept, apart from the fact that France itself considered its "colonies" in North Africa as part of France, there have been previous attempts by the EU to expand its influence into the Mediterranean region, since many EU countries border on the Med. In 1997, Zbignew Brezinski noted France's tendency to bring the Med. countries into the EU's "sphere of influence," and Joscha Fischer, FM of Germany, also supported this trend. According to Sarkozy's initiative the Med. Union would include all EU member states, plus Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and Israel. Israel was of course a sticking point for several of the Muslim/Arab members because they thought it might be tantamount to their recognizing Israel.
We are all aware that the number of Muslims in Europe has been increasing significantly over the past few years. The question arises, is this so-called Med. Union an attempt of France and other EU countries to exctend their influence over the North African region as a form of neo-colonialism (which was why Col. Qaddafi of Libya did not attend), or is this an attempt by the liberals in the EU to improve even further their ties with Muslim countries.
Recently Caroline Glick noted startling disclosures by former Italian president and Senator-for-life Francesco Cossiga that were contained in a letter to Italy's Corriere della Serra in August. Cossiga acknowledged that during the early 1970s, then Italian prime minister Aldo Moro signed an agreement with Yassir Arafat's PLO and affiliated organizations that enabled the Palestinians to field terrorists, operate bases and store weapons in Italy in exchange for immunity from attack for Italy and Italian interests worldwide. Cossiga also acknowledged that even when the Palestinians murdered Italians, the government still protected them. Indeed, he admitted for the first time that the largest terror attack ever to take place on Italian soil - the bombing of the Bologna train station in July 1980 which killed 85 people - was the work of PLO-affiliated terrorists from George Habash's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. So the connection of Arabs and Muslims with the EU began with a concerted and secret agreement that allowed Arab terrorism to operate on European soil.
Now to form such a Meditteranean Union could result in even more influence of the Islamic States in the EU. In a separate but related development, the EU has started an initative to try to regulate the influx of immigrants from African countries. They propose to open "employment exchanges" in selected African countries (such as Morocco, Senegal) where local inhibitants could apply for jobs in Europe, so that they would not be tempted to take the dangerous and illegal routes of boats from Africa to Spain and Italy. However, this approach may only increase the influx of immigrants by adding simpler and safer means for Africans/Muslims to enter the EU.

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