More than 40 countries from the European Union, the Balkans, north Africa and the Middle East agreed on Tuesday to base a new Union for the Mediterranean in Barcelona, ending a dispute that had held up the project for four months.

The union was launched amid great fanfare in Paris in July, but faded out of sight as it became entangled in familiar regional problems related to national prestige, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mutual suspicions between southern European states and their north African neighbours.