Stimulating Mediterranean cooperation

On December 5th, a summit in Naples brought together the head of the Italian government Romano Prodi and his Spanish counterpart, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The two men broached the question of cooperation in the Mediterranean region. According to the daily, "the recent initiatives of Nicolas Sarkozy aimed at playing a bigger role in this zone have obliged Italy and Spain to act in order not to be left behind. The French president has not only launched the project of creating a Mediterranean union made up of coastal countries, but has also managed to sign important deals with Morocco, Libya and Algeria in just a few a months. The new political challenge taken up by Prodi and Zapatero should not however be seen as a rival project, but as a collaboration. ... This is a question of coordinating the efforts of all three countries to reactivate the Mediterranean area and reduce differences between the north and the south."

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