Union for the Mediterranean Secretary General Ahmad Masa’deh resigns

The secretary general of the Union for the Mediterranean announced his resignation last 26 January 2011, blaming a lack of financial resources for the 43-country partnership, sources of the union's secretariat said.

Ahmad Khalef Masadeh of Jordan said he had informed the group's member countries of his decision to step down. He cited "difficult circumstances" and said the "general conditions" of his job had changed.

Masadeh's resignation was seen as a heavy blow for the Union for the Mediterranean, a pet project of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The union had kept a low profile over the recent unrest in Tunisia and Egypt, fuelling comments that it had never really taken off.

Masadeh was the first secretary general of the Barcelona-based union, a multilateral partnership that encompasses countries from Europe and the Mediterranean basin.

The functioning of the organization has been hampered by disagreements between Israel and Arab countries, which prevented a summit from being held last year.

In April, an agreement on Mediterranean water resources was blocked after Israel refused to use the term "occupied territories" to designate Palestinian territories.

However, the sources said Masadeh did not resign over these tensions, but over a lack of financial resources to carry out projects.

Some northern European countries did not feel really engaged in the process and had not met their financial pledges, the sources complained.

Masadeh earlier told a Spanish news agency he had requested a budget of 14.5 million euros (20 million dollars) for the secretariat, but had not even received half of that sum.

The Union for the Mediterranean had planned projects in areas such as reducing pollution in the Mediterranean, renewable energies and creating a Euro-Mediterranean university.

The union comprises 27 member states of the European Union and 16 Mediterranean partner countries from North Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans.

It was launched in July 2008 on the initiative of Sarkozy, as a relaunch of the former Euro-Mediterranean Barcelona Process, with the goal of promoting stability and prosperity in the Mediterranean region.

A six-member seؤretariat was established in Barcelona, in the north-eastern Spanish region of Catalonia, where Masadeh took office on January 12, 2010.

Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida, spokesman for Catalonia's governing party CiU, called on the union to find an "efficient" person to replace Masadeh.

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The Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfMS)