EU, Mediterranean project stalled again: French FM

(LUXEMBOURG) - France's flagship Mediterranean Union has stalled again amid a dispute between Egypt and Israel, just as it appeared to be showing new signs of life, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Tuesday.

"Egypt has raised objections. We've given up because the Egyptian foreign minister refuses to meet his Israeli counterpart," Kouchner told reporters in Luxembourg, on the sidelines of EU talks.

Mediterranean Union foreign ministers were to have met in Istanbul next month, but the talks have been "postponed", Kouchner said.

"We have to find a solution," he said.

Egypt has been Israel's main Arab interlocutor since the two signed a peace treaty in 1979, but the neighbours remain at odds over peace moves and hardline Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has added to tensions.

Last month, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit accused Israel of lacking the political will to enter "serious and credible" peace talks with the Palestinians.

The Mediterranean Union project, which involves around 40 nations, was launched with great fanfare in Paris in 2008 by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The union brings together EU members with states from north Africa, the Balkans, the Arab world and Israel in a bid to foster cooperation in one of the world's most volatile regions.

It was aimed at breathing new life into the EU's so-called Barcelona Process, which was constantly blocked due to disputes between its Middle East members.

But like its regional predecessor, it too was bogged down, notably by Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas missile strikes.

The union's priorities are to fight pollution in the Mediterranean Sea, increase solar energy use, build land and sea highways and cooperate on higher education and research.

Its goals are meant to be achieved by joint projects, which it is hoped would also help improve regional integration.