Heads of state and government of 43 potential member states have been invited to attend a summit meeting on 13 July, when they are expected to issue a ringing declaration formally launching the Union.

For extra solemnity, the summit will be held in the grandiose setting of the Grand Palais, a vast ironwork and glass structure, built in the heart of Paris for the Universal Exhibition of 1900.

In the meantime, planning for the launch is in the hands of a high-powered French team, led by Ambassador Alain Leroy, which Sarkozy has housed under his direct supervision at 23 Avenue Marigny, a former Rothschild mansion just across the street from the Elysée Palace.

What exactly is the proposed Mediterranean Union about, and why the urgency?

The Mediterranean lies at the centre of Sarkozy’s geo-political vision. "The Mediterrean," he likes to say, "is not our past but our future," in the sense that he believes that many of Europe’s most acute problems can be solved only in close coordination with the countries on the other side of the sea. This vision has led him to undertake several state visits to North Africa.

The problems he has in mind are familiar ones which have been much debated: terrorism; illegal immigration; pollution of the sea affecting tourism and fisheries; scarcity of fresh water; rampant unemployment and over-population in the South; desertification which is spreading to countries like Spain, Italy and Greece; and a widening of the already wide gap in personal incomes between North and South.

In other words, Europe’s security and prosperity can only be assured if the countries bordering the Mediterranean also enjoy security and prosperity -- but this requires a major joint initiative by both North and South. Behind this thinking is a sense that since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Western Europe has tended to neglect its southern flank while devoting much aid and attention to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

Sarkozy’s Mediterranean Union project faced early objections from German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She feared that he was planning to include only France, Spain and Italy in the proposed Mediterranean Union, excluding all other European Union member states. This problem was resolved when it was agreed that all 27 members of the EU would be members of the Union pour la Mediterranée (UPM). They will be joined by the countries bordering the Mediterranean, as well as by Jordan and Mauritania -- 43 countries in all.

Turkey was alarmed because Sarkozy’s plan was first billed as a device to keep Turkey out of the EU by offering it the alternative of membership of the UPM. Turkish anxieties have since been partially allayed by its proposed participation in some of the major economic projects Sarkozy hopes to initiate.

More than a decade ago, the Barcelona Process was launched in 1995, precisely in the hope that European money would help resolve political conflicts among the states bordering the Mediterranean, leading to economic development -- and thus to preventing the import into Western Europe of terrorism and unwanted migrants.

But the Barcelona Process has been a failure -- or at least only a very partial success. It was launched at a time of high expectations. The Madrid Conference of 1991 and the Oslo Accords of 1993 seemed to open the way to a settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict. But these expectations were soon disappointed.

The assassination of Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin by a Jewish fanatic in November 1995 put an end to peace-making. It was followed instead by a period of heightened Arab-Israeli tension and violence. This in turn has contributed to the rise of militant Islamic movements, to the terrorist attacks on America of 11 September 2001, to neo-colonial wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to a dangerous, and still un-bridged, rift between the West and the Arab and Islamic world. Against these odds, the Barcelona Process could make little headway.

One should add that another reason the Process failed was because it was undermined by the conflict between Morocco and Algeria over the Western Sahara, which prevented the creation of a single market in North Africa and thus discouraged inward investment into the region.

Over time, the Barcelona Process came to be seen as a doomed paternalistic project, launched by European governments for their own selfish purposes, with little input from countries in the east and south of the Mediterranean.

Sarkozy’s strategy today is to reverse the objectives. Instead of pressing for the resolution of political conflicts as a preliminary to economic development, his approach is to start with major economic projects in the belief that they will, in time, yield political dividends.

Among the projects now being discussed on both sides of the Mediterranean is a scheme to clean up -- or "de-pollute" -- the sea by 2020, with a first-stage investment of $2 billion. Another scheme, dear to Egypt, is to create a high-speed shipping route between Alexandria and Tangiers -- a sort of maritime motorway. There are plans to harness solar energy for the Mediterranean region, and to manage scarce water resources more efficiently, so as to provide drinking water for all and a better use of wastewater for irrigation.

The French are particularly keen on creating a unified Mediterranean scientific and university space, in which professional training will be provided for managers, scientists and technicians, so as to improve agriculture and fisheries, and check the relentless advance of desertification. Plans are also being prepared for a Mediterranean civil protection centre, for an agency to promote small and medium sized industries, for a possible Mediterranean bank, and much else besides.

Unlike the Barcelona Process, the idea this time is fully to involve the populations of the southern and eastern Mediterranean, to seek the participation of private sector interests and civil society associations, as well as financing not only from European governments and institutions, but also from the oil-rich countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

The idea is that the Mediterranean lies at the centre of a vast region extending from Africa to the Gulf. The calculation is that a healthy and prosperous Mediterranean will reinforce the position of Europe in the world and allow Europe to play a greater role in advancing the cause of peace in the Middle East.

"The objective of the Mediterranean Union is political," Ambassador Leroy says, "but it is driven by economics. We cannot wait for conflicts to be resolved before launching our projects. But the Union will launch a process which will, it is hoped, help solve the political conflicts." He adds that the great project of the European Union -- 27 member states and a combined population of 495 million -- started with the modest Coal and Steel Community.

Nicolas Sarkozy is determined to make the Mediterranean Union one of the great achievements of his Presidency. It remains to be seen whether the injection of his redoubtable political will can make the ambitious project a reality.