Euro-Mediterranean_free_trade_area
The European Union-Mediterranean Free Trade Area (EU-MED FTA, EMFTA), also called the Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area or Euromed FTA, is based on the Barcelona Process and European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). 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 by 2010.
 | This article needs to be updated. (November 2013) |
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.[1] The convention was in force from May 2012 and is the last step taken in the Barcelona Process so far.
The Agadir Agreement of 2004 (FTA between Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt) is seen as its first building block. Further steps are envisioned into the ENP 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 is to create a matrix of Free Trade Agreements between each of the partners and the others. Then a single free trade area is to be formed, including the European Union.
- European Union
- Turkey (maintains a Customs Union with the EU)
- Morocco (member of the Arab League and the Arab Maghreb Union)
- Algeria (member of the Arab League and the Arab Maghreb Union)
- Tunisia (member of the Arab League and the Arab Maghreb Union)
- Egypt (member of the Arab League)
- Jordan (member of the Arab League)
- Lebanon (member of the Arab League)
- Israel
- Palestinian National Authority (Member of the Arab League)
- Syria (Member of the Arab League)
- Libya (member of the Arab League and the Arab Maghreb Union)
- Gulf Cooperation Council
- Iraq (Member of the Arab League)
- Mauritania (member of the Arab League and the Arab Maghreb Union)
EU associated | Other Barcelona Conference partners | Prospective partners | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Morocco | ||||||||||||||||
| EU | FTA 1973 | CU 1996 | AA 2000 | AA 2005 | AA 1998 | AA 2004 | AA 2002 | AA 2006 | AA | AA 2000 | AA 1997 | FTA | ||||
| EFTA | FTA 1973 | FTA 1992 | FTA 1999 | FTA 2005 | FTA 2002 | FTA 2005 | FTA 1993 | FTA 1999 | ||||||||
| Turkey CU | CU 1996 | FTA 1992 | FTA 2004 | FTA 2005 | FTA 2006 | FTA 2009 | FTA 2010 | FTA 2004 | FTA 1997 | FTA 2005 | ||||||
| Morocco | AA 2000 | FTA 1999 | FTA 2004 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | |||
| Algeria | AA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | |||||
| Tunisia | AA 1998 | FTA 2005 | FTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | |||
| Egypt | AA 2004 | FTA 2006 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | ||||
| Jordan | AA 2002 | FTA 2002 | FTA 2009 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | |||
| Lebanon | AA 2006 | FTA 2005 | FTA 2010 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | FTA 2002, GAFTA 2005 | |||
| Syria | AA | FTA 2004 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | ||||
| Israel | AA 2000 | FTA 1993 | FTA 1997 | CU 1994 | ||||||||||||
| PA | AA 1997 | FTA 1999 | FTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | CU 1994 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | ||
| Libya | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | ||||||
| GCC | FTA | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | |||||
| Mauritania | ||||||||||||||||
| Iraq | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | FTA 2002, GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | GAFTA 2005 | ||||||
- African Economic Community
- Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area
- Economic integration
- EUR.1 movement certificate
- List of free trade agreements
- List of trade blocs
- Middle East economic integration
- Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe
- Union for the Mediterranean
- US-Middle East Free Trade Area (US-MEFTA)
- The convention covers the EU, the EFTA, the EU customs unions with third states (Turkey, Andorra, San Marino), the EU candidate states, the partners of the Barcelona Process and possibly at a later stage all of the European Neighbourhood Policy partners.
- General overviews
- Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreements, Summaries of EU Legislation, EU website, 2007. Consulted 4 September 2010.
- System of Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Cumulation, European Commission Taxation and Customs Union page. Consulted 4 September 2010.
- Euro-Med free trade area: the benefits of cumulation, EFTA Bulletin, Switzerland, July–August 2006. Consulted 4 September 2010.
- More specific studies
- European Union–Developing Country FTAs: Overview and Analysis, by JOSEPH F. FRANCOIS, MATTHEW MCQUEEN and GANESHAN WIGNARAJA, in "World Development" Vol. 33, No. 10, pp. 1545–1565, 2005, Elsesvier Ltd, UK.
- Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area – Is It Time to Be Optimistic about the Future?, by Eylin Ege on the IEMed Observatory website, Barcelona, no date. Consulted 4 September 2010.
- The Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area and its Impact on the Economies Involved, by Nicola Minasi, Rome, no date. Consulted 4 September 2010.
- THE EUROMEDITERRANEAN FREE TRADE AREA: FROM COMPETITION TO INTEGRATION Archived 27 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine, by Alejandro Lorca and Gonzalo Escribano, Madrid, no date. Consulted 4 September 2010.