View our special report on the Union for the Mediterranean. 

Marseille's Old Port has long been the southern gateway to Western Europe. Generations of migrants used this as their main entry point into the continent. Yet, nowadays, it's cruise ships and pleasure yachts that dot the horizon.

Still, the old port has maintained its distinctly Mediterranean identity. This city steeped in history doesn’t need Nicolas Sarkozy’s proposed Union to reassert its dependence on the sea. As the historian and journalist Jean Contrucci points out, they’ve been trading with their southern neighbors for centuries.

Migrations across the Mediterranean are an age-old phenomenon that seep through the very core of this city. Here, the many-varied communities are living in harmony. Indeed, the town is something of a unique melting pot, as in the Panier, one of France’s oldest neighbourhoods.

While they constitute an ethnically diverse mix, all inhabitants of Marseille worship the same religion: we’re talking about football. Here, the Olympique de Marseille, or OM, is deity. The team’s strip is proving the most effective means to unite one people under a uniform all are proud to wear, from Algiers to Istanbul. The love of football knows no bounds.

Nicolas moved to Marseilles from his native Paris six years ago – and he says he’s still impressed by how strong the Mediterranean feeling is here.

Beyond the sporting arena, there are the more contentious political aspects linked with the emerging Union for the Mediterranean. This is not the first time such a treaty has been mooted – efforts in Barcelona back in 1995 ended in failure. Back then, the project was sidelined as lacking in ambition, focusing too much on the northern countries, to the detriment of states along the Mediterranean's southern rim.

Click on the links to view our other reportages on Mediterranean harbours:

- The Bosphorus, by the waters of the EU

- Haifa, port of amity

- Riga, the Baltic Riviera