'That is the second to ask the world to reconstruct Gaza': EU Mediterranean Commissioner Suica

[ad_1] A number of new portfolios have been created within the present European Fee, to mirror the EU's altering priorities. A type of is a Commissioner for the Mediterranean. This can be a essential area for the EU, because the bloc grapples with troublesome points similar to migration, local weather and vitality. The EU needs to pursue this southern pivot by signing a Pact for the Mediterranean with North African and Center Jap international locations. Our visitor is the EU's Commissioner for the Mediterranean, Dubravka Suica. She is a Croatian centre-right politician and he or she held the Democracy and Demography portfolio within the first von der Leyen Fee, from 2019 to 2024. She has additionally been an MEP.

We start with this 12 months's UN Basic Meeting, and the rising variety of EU member states that recognised a Palestinian state. "This Basic Meeting confirmed a giant step ahead as a result of greater than 160 international locations recognised Palestine," Suica states. "And I am positive that this one way or the other created new momentum, no matter some divisions which you talked about inside the EU. We'll see within the subsequent International Affairs Council what the state of affairs is amongst EU member states. I feel that we're nonetheless not united, however issues are stepping into the fitting course, particularly now after we now have this 21-point plan which was supplied by President Trump to each Israel and Palestine."

On the Palestine Donor Group, initially outlined by EU Fee chief Ursula von der Leyen in her State of the Union speech, Suica says: "We're positive that we are going to set up this group by the top of this 12 months. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is , so we are going to one way or the other co-chair this donor group. However that is the second to ask everybody on the planet to assist reconstruct Gaza, and to consider anticipate the state of affairs after a ceasefire. [My] Mediterranean portfolio will not be solely North Africa and the Center East, but additionally the Gulf international locations. With out them, we can't obtain peace and safety within the area. We badly want all of the Gulf international locations on board."

Suica insists that the brand new Pact for the Mediterranean, scheduled to be introduced by the European Fee on October 16, will likely be "for the advantage of either side of the Mediterranean, north and south, as a result of we expect that there's a lot of potential in within the Mediterranean. It is about all the pieces. It is concerning the surroundings; protecting this space clear and never polluted. It is about commerce. It is about growth. It is about schooling. It is not solely about migration. Migration is simply one of many factors inside our strategic partnership agreements."

However will this Pact not find yourself creaming off expert labour from the southern Mediterranean to plug job shortages in Europe? "We do not need to create mind drain in these international locations," Suica solutions. "We do not need to take all their medical doctors, their engineers, their mental elite. We're placing folks on the centre. It is about younger folks. They might help us to attach the folks of the Mediterranean. That is precisely why I wish to set up a Mediterranean College, be it in Beirut, Alexandria, Fez or Barcelona."

Suica was about to journey to Tunisia, a key accomplice for the EU, simply after our interview. We requested her concerning the human rights abuses in that nation, and whether or not the EU has been too gentle. "With Tunisia, we at all times insist on transparency," she replies. "We insist on registering migrants, which isn't the case in the intervening time. So that is one thing that we're engaged on with them, not solely me, but additionally my colleague, Commissioner Brunner. There may be house for enchancment. However on the identical time, if we're not there, who will likely be there? We do not need different gamers, be it Russia, be it China. We need to be there because the European Union."

Demography is a part of Suica's portfolio, and we contact on the declining fertility charges within the EU. "After we point out fertility and fertility charges, it is a competence of the member states, not of the European Union," Suica explains. "However we are attempting to create an surroundings for households to thrive, to have housing, to have jobs. We'd like extra kindergartens, nursery houses and so forth. To ensure that folks to finally have extra children. However this can be a very severe state of affairs in Europe. Once you have a look at the southern Mediterranean, you see a increase. And in Europe we now have a shrinkage."