Citizens drive Maghreb Union effort

Faced with the reluctance of politicians to revive the Maghreb Union, other players are now taking up the baton.

Analysis by Imrane Binoual for Magharebia in Casablanca

[Imrane Binoual] Algeria’s UGTA head Abdelmjid Sidi Said (left) shakes hands with Morocco Workers Union (UMT) chief Miloudi Moukharik.
The Arab Spring was expected to finally bring regional unity to the Maghreb. Leaders were talking about improved ties, new co-operation accords and plan to meet next month in Tunisia for the first time in 18 years.

But efforts to revive the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) project keep running into obstacles. Every time the project appears close to implementation, decision-makers of the five member countries bring it to a standstill.

“We need the Maghreb Union,” Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki said in February, explaining why he had decided to tour Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Mauritania and press for the initiative so soon after his election.

“I hope that 2012 will be the year of the UMA,” he said.

As soon as Marzouki announced in July that Tunisia would host UMA members in Tabarka on October 10th, the Moroccan and Algerian governments questioned whether the summit was even necessary.

Abdelilah Benkirane, the new head of the Moroccan government, has maintained that as long as the borders between Morocco and Algeria remain closed, conditions would “not be right for a summit”.

Such a meeting “would be nothing more than show”, he told PJD party organ Attajdid in July.

The same month, the Algerian foreign ministry said that the date of the summit would not be officially set until all negotiations were completed.

It becomes increasingly clear that the first step on the road to a unified Maghreb may not, in fact, be made by political decision-makers.

Even the politicians themselves are now placing their hopes in the people of the five countries to bring about the UMA.

Moroccan Foreign Minister Saadeddine El Othmani on September 1st called for citizens to exert more pressure on the political classes to see the Maghreb Union to completion.

“If we can go along that route, we’ll achieve a great step forward for this union,” he told the PJD party youth congress in Tangier

He called on youth organisations and civil society groups to make the dream of a united Maghreb a reality, exhorting them to work to overcome any obstacles impeding the project’s completion.

Various professional bodies in the five Maghreb countries are working towards this end.

The greatest public pressure – and the kind most likely to make a difference – comes from those representing the working classes. Unions across the region are conscious that, within the context of economic and financial crisis, “the interests of Maghreb workers must come first”.

With this in mind, two union organisations – the oldest and strongest in the Maghreb – signed a memorandum of understanding to breathe new life into the Arab Maghreb Trade Union (USTMA).

The Moroccan Workers Union (UMT) and the Algerian General Workers Union (UGTA) signed that agreement in Casablanca on September 4th.

[Messaoud Allel] Fan holds flags of host venue Morocco and Libya during the Algeria-Libya CAN qualifier, played September 9th in Casablanca.
According to UMT official Mohamed El Wafy, the two parties agreed to host annual meetings, pool ideas and build a common policy on economic, social and union issues.

“The idea is to unite their actions to strengthen the union movement in the Maghreb,” El Wafy tells Magharebia.

“We want to breathe new life into the USTMA, to enable it to play its role as a driving force at both the regional and international levels,” he explains.

As another way of making the Maghreb Union come about through concerted action, the Moroccan and Algerian representatives with the Tunisian General Workers’ Union (UGTT) and the Mauritanian Workers’ Union (CGTM), UMT Secretary-General Miloudi Moukharik says.

His Algerian counterpart, Abdelmjid Sidi Said, stresses the importance of ties between bodies representing workers in the Maghreb.

“We must consider the United Arab Maghreb and stop working individually, because we are all connected to one another,” he said. “We must defend our social interests through the economic integration of the Maghreb. If we don’t all work together, we’ll never manage it,” the UGTA head tells Magharebia.

“Together, we’ll bring pressure to bear on our governments to remember their social priorities,” he adds.

The potential benefits to all Maghreb Union member states of economic co-operation have been well documented, most recently by the African Development Bank (AfDB).

“There is great potential for development of regional trade between the countries of the Maghreb,” the bank said in a report published Wednesday (September 5th). The Maghreb region is among areas of the world that could most benefit from the process of integration among its countries, the report said.

It is not just labour unions that are linking up with their Maghreb peers. Many professionals see these new pan-Maghreb ties as a benefit to state and regional economic interests, and a means to boost competiveness in the age of globalisation.

Barristers from the five UMA countries have established the Union of Maghreb Lawyers (UAM). In the health sector, doctors created the Maghreb Union of Private Doctors. Veterinary surgeons hold regular Maghreb conferences.

Another professional body set up the Unified Maghreb Commission of Legal and Judicial Experts, while scientists have prepared a Maghreb-wide platform for scientific and university research in the field of alternative and renewable energies. The examples go on and on.

[AFP/Farouk Batiche] Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci (right) speaks during an Arab Maghreb Union security summit in Algiers on July 9th, 2012.
Popular pressure may make the Maghreb Union plan come to fruition, even as politicians themselves have been slow to act.

The tide appears to be turning. Maghreb foreign ministers met last July in Algiers to adopt a common approach to security threats, and several Maghreb countries have already signed bilateral education accords.

Young people from the different Maghreb countries are working together and trying to breathe new life into the Maghreb Union initiative.

At a meeting last year in Tunis, the Euro-Maghreb Youth Union (UJEM) discussed applying pressure on government officials open the borders between Algeria and Morocco. The proposal came on the eve of a football match between the countries in Marrakech.

The idea was abandoned because it would have involved too much risk for the young people willing to get involved.

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But those behind the action, campaigning within Youth Union, are not willing to give up.

According to UJEM member Taghzout Ghezali, work group meetings will resume with the start of the new political and business year in September.

There is also pan-Maghreb action being taken by the active Amazigh movement. Indeed, Amazigh campaigners set up the Union of North African Peoples (UNAP). It is to be expected that the group’s members aim to promote Amazigh heritage in the region.

Their other objective is to help unite the Maghreb.

Algeria Libya Mauritania Morocco Tunisia

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