The specific details of the plan are to be hammered out ahead of a summit on July 13 in Paris under the French EU presidency to formally launch the Mediterranean Union.

Around 39 countries, including 27 EU members and some 12 Mediterranean nations are to be included in the Union.

Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Israel, Syria and Turkey, to name a few, are to take part.

Agreement reached at summit

The establishment of the Mediterranean Union "enjoyed support in the Council", Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, whose country is holding the current EU presidency, told a joint press conference after the first day session of the spring EU summit on March 13-14.

"Today we recognized the need to upgrade the Barcelona Process," he said.

"When the Barcelona Process was launched, it was quite a different time," Jansa said, "But now things have changed, we need to adapt."

He said the Mediterranean Union would not replace the Barcelona Process but upgrade it, adding that the Process had produced results since it was started a dozen years ago.

"It is now a question of working on this in different forums. It's now a question of doing what is needed so that this project can see the light of day," the Prime Minister said.

European Commission President Jose Manual Barroso, who also attended the press conference, said that an agreement was reached to launch the project as soon as possible, "with the principle that all member states will participate".