Now, the colorful, multi-ethnic hub is jostling for a new title as the showcase for a new partnership agreement between the European Union, North African and Middle Eastern countries.

现在，这个多姿多彩、种族多元化的枢纽城市正在争夺新的头衔--成为让世人了解欧盟、北非和中东国家新的合作协议的窗口。

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They traveled in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe,the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

VOA: special.2010.06.21

The European Union plans close cooperation with Middle Eastern nations such as Iraq and Egypt.

VOA: standard.2009.05.11

But it is the next man in the White House who counts in Middle Eastern diplomacy and not Mr Sarkozy or his Union.

BBC: Sarkozy's plan: Showy or astute?

Reducing America's petrol consumption by 20% by 2017, a target he announced in the state-of-the-union address, would certainly diminish the country's dependence on Middle Eastern oil, but the way he plans to go about it may not be either efficient or clean.

ECONOMIST: Climate change

Although often mocked in Brussels as a mediocrity, Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign-policy chief, finds herself at the heart of Middle Eastern mediation.

ECONOMIST: Charlemagne