The Union for the Mediterranean is a French-inspired project aimed at boosting relations between the European Union and the countries of the southern and eastern Mediterranean.

It builds on the EU’s Barcelona Process, launched in 1995 and generally seen as having failed to achieve much of substance. Among the reasons are the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, rivalries among north African and Arab countries, and the complaint of non-EU countries that the Europeans set the agenda without taking their wishes into consideration. The European Commission has outlined four projects for the new union: tackling pollution in the Mediterranean sea, promoting solar energy, developing sea routes and upgrading port facilities, and building a new road-link for north Africa. The EU will not make extra money available for the new union but hopes to attract private-sector finance as well as World Bank funds. A total of 44 participants are expected to attend Sunday’s inaugural summit in Paris: all 27 EU member states, plus Albania, Algeria, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey.