Euro-Mediterranean free trade area
The European Union-Mediterranean Free Trade Area, also called the Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area or Euromed FTA, is based on the Barcelona Process and European Neighbourhood Policy. The Barcelona Process, developed after the Barcelona Conference in successive annual meetings, is a set of goals designed to lead to a free trade area in the Mediterranean Region and the Middle East.
A Regional Convention on pan-Euro-Mediterranean preferential Rules of Origin was signed in June 2011 to allow identical rules of origin across the region. The convention covers the EU, the EFTA, the EU customs unions with third states, the EU candidate states, the partners of the Barcelona Process and possibly at a later stage all of the European Neighbourhood Policy partners. The convention was in force from May 2012 and is the last step taken in the Barcelona Process so far.
History
The Agadir Agreement of 2004 was seen as its first building block. Further steps were envisioned into the European Neighbourhood policy Action plans negotiated between the European Union and the partner states on the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, mostly with Arab League member states.The initial aim was to create a matrix of Free Trade Agreements between each of the partners and the others. Then a single free trade area was to be formed, including the European Union.
Partners
- European Union
- Turkey
- Morocco
- Algeria
- Tunisia
- Egypt
- Jordan
- Lebanon
- Israel
- Palestinian National Authority