Tunisia President to Visit Algeria to Revive Maghreb Union

Tunisia new President Moncef Marzouki is preparing for a major drive to unify the Maghreb on his first foreign tour as the birthplace of the Arab Spring seeks to recover lost diplomatic prestige.

Seven weeks after taking office, Marzouki will on Wednesday kick off a six-day trip to Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania in a bid to revive the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA), a dormant body that also includes Libya.
“This visit is aimed at reviving the Arab Maghreb Union and discussing the holding of a summit that Tunisia proposes to host,” Marzouki’s spokesman Adane Moncer said.
The UMA was created in 1989 as a trade agreement meant to eventually achieve deeper political integration but has been inactive since 1994, over the issue of Western Sahara.
According to the spokesman, Marzouki already broached the issue of a regional summit with Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia on the sidelines of the annual African Union heads of state meeting in Addis Ababa last month.
Marzouki is due to meet Morocco’s King Mohammed VI and his new moderate Islamist prime minister, Abdelilah Benkirane, before holding talks in Mauritania and wrapping up in Algeria, where is due to meet President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
He envisions a “Maghreb of freedoms” modelled on the European Union inside which citizens of the five member states could cross borders, reside, invest and buy property freely.
“2012 will be the Maghreb’s year,” Marzouki said.