Prior to the ‘Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean’ ministerial conference, the foreign affairs ministers of the EU Member States, along with Javier Solana, the Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union and High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European Commissioner for External Relations, at the invitation of Bernard Kouchner, the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, met on 3 November in Marseilles, on the eve of the US presidential elections, to finalise their plans for establishing a balanced, closer cooperation with the United States.