Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-06-11-Speech-2-030"
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"en.20020611.3.2-030"2
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". – Mr President, the Commission endorses the excellent report by Mr Morillon and Mr Cohn-Bendit and the accompanying resolution. Regional development cooperation with a grouping such as the Arab Maghreb Union is entirely in keeping with the policy guidelines formulated by the Euro-Mediterranean foreign ministers at their summit in Valencia on 22 and 23 April.
Thanks to seven newly signed association agreements, North-South cooperation between the EU and its Mediterranean partners now has a proper legal and economic framework. An agreement will be signed with Lebanon on 17 June and negotiations with Syria are continuing. Once these are finalised, the whole set of association agreements between the EU and Barcelona Process partners will be completed.
But there is something more we have to do if we want to put this on a really solid footing. We have to persuade our partners to engage in South-South cooperation. That point was made again at Valencia. It was made in the decisions on trade taken by the Barcelona Process trade ministers when they met in Toledo on 19 March. The same issues were also raised at the meeting of the industry ministers which I attended a week later.
This decision sets out to facilitate trade and investment amongst the countries of the southern Mediterranean. Working parties will look in detail at how this closer regional cooperation will function. From a more general political point of view, the Commission welcomes more frequent meetings between the Arab Maghreb Union countries and looks forward to an AMU summit in the near future.
There is another initiative that the Commission wants to encourage: the Agadir Declaration of 8 May 2001 in which four Arab countries – Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan – proposed the setting up of a free trade area. The Commission hopes that other countries in the region will join this initiative. In addition to political support the Commission is willing to provide technical assistance, not just for the AMU but also for the Agadir Declaration.
There are two additional points I would like to make on the report. As far as democracy and human rights are concerned, the Commission obviously shares the view put forward in the draft resolution on the importance of respecting the provisions of the association agreement. In this respect, sustained action is needed by the EU institutions to improve the situation. The Commission is currently planning programmes in Algeria and Tunisia through MEDA and the European initiative for democracy and human rights, and will continue to do so independently.
With regard to financial cooperation the Commission is fully aware of the importance of covering the regional dimension. Ten per cent of funds available under the MEDA programme will be earmarked for regional measures. Some of these resources could be dedicated to fund intra-Maghreb cooperation.
I will pass on the message from the debate to Mr Patten, who is responsible for this dossier. Unfortunately he is on mission today."@en1
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