Cairo - Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit has dismissed concerns in Arab countries that a proposed Euro- Mediterranean union is a European attempt to control them and merge them into an unwanted alliance with Israel, a local newspaper reported Wednesday.
Abul-Gheit told Egypt's semi-official daily al-Ahram that the new union was an extension of the Barcelona process, but would give countries south of the Mediterranean a central role.
The Barcelona process - launched in 1995 - established formal cooperation between 27 members of the European Union and 12 southern Mediterranean countries in the political, economic, cultural, social and migration spheres.