Tag: Mediterranean Union

How About A North American Union?

Recently my conserv friend Terrance over at Sibboleth Nation were debating about the oil industry and the possibility of an OPEC-esque group for the oil industry for North America in a way to try and fight the rising cost of ME oil…….we did not agree much but I understood his point and I believe he got mine also.  But that exchange go me to thinking about the possibility of an EU like organization for the North American continent.  There had bee some lip service for a Mediterranean Union, a group of nations that encircle the sea to promote trade, educational and democratic advances…..this was back in 2008, the Summer to be exact…..but alas not much has come to pass since the proposal of the idea.

I got to thinking that surely someone, somewhere had come up with this as a solution to the problems of the hemisphere…..I found this quote in the Economic Policy Journal……

More generally, President Obama has worked closely with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts to create High-Level Regulatory Cooperation Councils with both countries. The councils are developing and implementing plans to eliminate or prevent the creation of unnecessary burdens on cross-border trade, streamline regulatory requirements, and promote greater certainty for the general public and for businesses in the regulation of food, pharmaceuticals, nanotechnology and other areas.

The U.S. and Canada have already agreed to harmonize their rules with respect to fuel economy, building on a long history of collaboration on national emission standards for new vehicles. This step will avoid divergent requirements and unnecessary costs on both automobile companies and consumers.

Is there a history of this sort of thinking?

From Wikipedia…..According to a January 2005 diplomatic cable that was released by Wikileaks in 2011, U.S. government officials were assessing Canadian views on what aspects of integration they were most interested in and how these goals might be best implemented there. The cable suggests a new “North American Initiative” that would address goals in the areas of “security” and “prosperity” through incremental measures saying such a proposal would get the most support from Canadian policymakers. It notes many Canadian economists supported “ambitious” goals like a single market, with some supporting a monetary union, but that they believed the incremental approach was more appropriate at the time. Canada’s central bank governor is partially quoted in the cable from a 2003 speech when he said “First, let me stress that monetary union is an issue that should be considered once we have made more progress towards establishing a single market for goods and services, capital, and labour. Without a single, well-functioning market for labour, a single currency could impose great adjustment costs on workers.” The National Post‘s Robert Hiltz described the cable in June 2011 as discussing “the obstacles surrounding the merger of the economies of Canada, the United States and Mexico in a fashion similar to the European Union.”

Two months later at the March meeting of North American leaders the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) was formed. It was described by the leaders of Canada, Mexico and the United States as a dialogue to provide greater cooperation on security and economic issues.   In response to later concerns, a section was put up on the initiative’s site clarifying the SPP was not a legal agreement, that the initiative “does not seek to rewrite or renegotiate NAFTA”, and that the partnership itself “creates no NAFTA-plus legal status.”  A number of academics and government officials at the time viewed the SPP as moving North America towards greater integration.

Actually, some form of a combining of Canada, US and Mexico has been batted around since about the mid-19th century and NAFTA has been called the kick-off of the NAU with its own common currency, called the Amero

Now think about the problems that the EU is having today…..part of the problem is the single currency….a country cannot devalue its currency to try and counter economic problems and it seems that North America will be looking at the same sorts of problems.  It is a horrible idea and I think that the recent situations that has arisen within the EU could put this type of talk in the crapper.

More On A Mediterranean Union

French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged the disparate and conflicted countries around the Mediterranean Sea on Sunday to make peace as European rivals did in the 20th century, as he launched an unprecedented Union for the Mediterranean.

“The European and the Mediterranean dreams are inseparable,” Sarkozy told leaders from more than 40 nations in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. “We will succeed together; we will fail together.”

The union Sarkozy championed as a pillar of his presidency brought together around one table for the first time dignitaries such rival nations as Israel and Syria, Algeria and Morocco, Turkey and Greece.

Coping with age-old enmities involving their peoples and others along the Mediterranean shores will be a central challenge to the new union encompassing some 800 million people.

A draft declaration obtained by The Associated Press shows that summit participants will announce “objectives of achieving peace, stability and security” in the region. The six firm measures it names include a region-wide solar energy project, a cross-Mediterranean student exchange program and a plan to clean up the polluted sea.

The draft declaration says the Union for the Mediterranean is to be operational by the end of this year, and unlike any previous body, it will be jointly run by all its members. It will have a dual presidency, held jointly for rotating terms by one country within the European Union and one country on the Mediterranean shore.

The draft also speaks of democratic principles, human rights and fundamental freedoms — values Western critics have accused such union members as Syria of violating.

The new union is to include at least 43 nations, nearly all of which sent a president or prime minister to the summit. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi objected to the whole idea and refused to come

THis was proposed in the 90’s I believe by Turkey, but for some reason it was not a popular proposal, but now it is.  I ask why?  Is there already enough organizations on the market?

Mediterranean Union

This was propsed by the president of France, but it is not anything new. A similar organization was proposed by Turkey back in the 1980’s and was a no go. Sarkozy has gotten closer than anyone else. But is this a good idea?
Mediterranean countries due to launch a regional union next month have yet to agree an overall vision for the project and questions remain over Israel’s role, Algeria’s foreign minister said.

France proposed a Union for the Mediterranean last year to boost ties with the European Union’s southern neighbors and improve cooperation on trade, security and migration. The project is due to be unveiled in Paris on July 13.

Arab states are worried that joining with Israel in the union would imply a normalization of ties with the Jewish state.

“The membership of Israel was among questions we discussed and clarifications were urged on this,” Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci said after a meeting of Mediterranean foreign ministers in Algiers.

a news conference after a two-day meeting in Algiers of the 11-nation Mediterranean Forum, which includes France, Spain, Egypt, Malta, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Tunisia and Turkey.

The union under discussion is a scaled-back version of the original proposal which would have grouped only states with a Mediterranean coastline and involved nine new agencies and a bank.