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| INVEST IN THE
MEDITERRANEAN -
SELLING POINTS |
| At world crossroads |
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| At the crossroads of Europe, Africa and the Middle East, the Mediterranean Sea, that the Romans called Mare Nostrum (our sea), is the very cradle of Western civilisation. From the Roman Empire to the Egyptian pyramids, from the Greek thinkers to the philosophers of the Enlightenment, from the birth of the Judeo-Christian religions to modern day, the Mediterranean world has, over the centuries, born privileged testimony to the important evolutions of humanity. |
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| Photo : At world crossroads |
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At world crossroads
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Introduction |
At the crossroads of Europe, Africa and the Middle East, the Mediterranean Sea, that the Romans called Mare Nostrum (our sea), is the very cradle of Western civilisation. From the Roman Empire to the Egyptian pyramids, from the Greek thinkers to the philosophers of the Enlightenment, from the birth of the Judeo-Christian religions to modern day, the Mediterranean world has, over the centuries, born privileged testimony to the important evolutions of humanity. Extending from East to West over 3,860 km, it is 800 km wide in the West and 1,000 km wide in the East, and flanks twenty seven countries which have shared a common destiny for centuries. With this impressive heritage behind them, together with their strategic geographical situation, the Mediterranean States today have every intention of exploiting their numerous assets so as to take up the challenges of the third millennium. |
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A geo-strategic region |
With the modern era, the Mediterranean has become an increasingly complex geopolitical region. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, turned the Mediterranean into a privileged sea route towards the Orient which gave rise to a large number of solicitations. Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus or even Egypt thus became the highly sought-after calling points, especially in the twentieth century, when the importance of oil from the Persian Gulf was to reinforce the strategic character of this maritime axis. Later, the East-West rivalry in the Balkans and the Near East, the awakening of Arab nationalism, the de-colonisation of the Maghreb and finally, the Palestinian Authority question, have meant that since 1950, the Mediterranean has become one of the main hot spots of the geopolitical world. |
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A high level economic power |
Including the Northern rim, the Mediterranean space, with a population of nearly 380 million inhabitants (that is 7 % of the world population) spread between the different countries on its shores (42 % of which are in Europe and 36 % on the Southern shores) produce 15 % of the annual wealth of the planet and make up 16 % of world trade. If the countries of the Northern shores contribute, for the moment at least, to a large part of this economic power, the countries of the South hope soon to be able to take advantage of the introduction of the future free trade area and thus make up the leeway on their European neighbours. Without counting on growth rates well ahead of Western countries, they henceforth represent particularly propitious markets for investors constantly in search of new outlets. |
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A common living space |
One hundred and forty kilometres only separate Sicily from Tunisia and fourteen separate Spain from Morocco -a geographical reality which bears witness to the privileged historic links maintained for centuries by the two sides of the Mediterranean. Today, these relations of proximity, even if they do not hide the economic fracture which still exists between the North and the South, nevertheless constitute the bonding material of a new common living space.
And thanks to the political impulse given by the Barcelona Declaration, the co-operation between the States is henceforth likely to intensify, at the political, economic, cultural and even environmental levels, since the preservation of the Mediterranean will doubtless be found among the considerable challenges for our society during the century which lies ahead. |
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