Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-11-19-Speech-3-043"
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"en.20031119.2.3-043"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to have the opportunity to illustrate to this House the results we expect from the sixth Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference, which will be taking place in Naples on 2 and 3 December 2003.
In this respect, the formal inclusion, with consultative functions, of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly in the Partnership framework is vitally important, since it is the Assembly, first and foremost, that will be entrusted with the task of bringing the Barcelona Process closer to public opinion and thus making good the participation deficit and, even more importantly, the communication deficit that the Barcelona Process has undoubtedly been labouring under thus far.
We see the Foundation for Intercultural Dialogue as a structure that – combining pragmatism with a sense of perspective – can act as a catalyst on all the initiatives seeking to develop dialogue and mutual understanding on the basis of the ‘Guiding Principles for the Dialogue between Cultures and Civilisations’ approved by the Crete Conference. The Naples Conference itself will have the task of sanctioning the creation of the Foundation and, we hope, making
the choice of location official at the same time. Finally, we consider it to be fundamentally important to improve the operation of the FEMIP by tailoring its instruments more closely to the needs of small- and medium-sized businesses and the private sector.
Naples will be focusing mainly on these issues, but there is more: the Conference will have the added objective of confirming the undertaking to develop the Partnership in political and security matters as well, introducing fuller cooperation on the ESDP and more in-depth dialogue on the particularly thorny issue of terrorism.
As regards the economic dimension, Naples will – amongst other things – provide an opportunity for convergence and evaluation of the results of the Euro-Mediterranean Conference on Trade held in Palermo in July 2003. It will also give us the chance to consider the outcome of the first Euro-Mediterranean Conference of the Ministers for Agriculture which will be held in Venice on 27 November, and the Conference on Investment, Infrastructure and Energy which will be taking place immediately before Barcelona 6, on 1 and 2 December 2003.
The social and cultural agenda will, inevitably, largely be taken up by the debate on the Foundation but it will certainly provide an opportunity to assess the progress made since the launch of the regional programme on Good Governance and the Strengthening of the Rule of Law, which is a crucial factor for the future of Euro-Mediterranean cooperation in the fields of justice, policing and immigration policy. The debate on this last issue, in particular, will underline the importance of adopting a balanced approach to the management of migratory policy, which, if properly oriented, could make a positive contribution to the socio-economic growth of the entire region.
Again with the objective of bringing the Partnership closer to public opinion, the Naples Conference will welcome the launch of cooperation between the regional authorities in the countries on the two shores of the Mediterranean, a process in which the forthcoming interregional conference in Palermo will be an important landmark. Moreover, Naples should also take note of a mechanism for the involvement of civil society, the special Forum that will be held in that city on the eve of the Conference. The Forum will be open to a wider range of participants and be structured coherently in such a way as to increase the impact and profile of the exercise. Finally, the Conference will record the conclusions of the meeting of the bodies representing the social forces which has just taken place in Malta under the auspices of the European Social Committee.
All this will be included in the powerful message which, we trust, will be sent out from the Naples Conference. To achieve these objectives, we are working to ensure that the positions of all the Euro-Mediterranean Partners on these issues converge at this event. We are doing so in a spirit of pragmatism and following a strategic approach that should make it possible to reconcile diverse interests in order to build and nurture – in the new conceptual framework of the Wider Europe – a more solid relationship between the two shores of the Mediterranean.
On this point, Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I believe I can say that we are on the right road.
Even before taking over the six months’ presidency of the Council of the European Union, Italy had a clear understanding of how big a part the outcome of the Naples Conference would play in the overall assessment of its Presidency. Indeed, within the overall external relations framework of the new enlarged Union, relations with the countries of the southern shore of the Mediterranean continue to occupy a significant place and act as a firm point of reference.
From the outset, the Barcelona Process has provided a means of measuring the state of health of these relations, often serving as a metronome regulating the pace of the dialogue between the two shores of our common sea and acting, therefore, as a force regulating – and, above all, driving forward – the dialogue itself, insofar as this has been possible in view of the events in the Middle East over the years.
In the run-up to the Naples Conference, Italy has been able at all times to count on the fruitful cooperation of all the partners, who, without exception, have demonstrated in recent months that they share our deep expectations that Barcelona VI should genuinely be a time of unmistakable reinvigoration of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. This need for reinvigoration is rooted conceptually in the Valencia Action Plan approved under the Spanish Presidency in April 2002. It was confirmed by the ministerial conference in Crete last May under the Greek Presidency and has been taken by us as a clear indication of the mandate to give shape to the common undertaking to place the Barcelona Process on a more solid footing. This seems even more necessary today, when the Union enlargement process on the one hand and the situation in the Middle East on the other are giving rise to a strong demand for Europe on the part of the countries on the southern shore of the Mediterranean.
The European Union has, in the meantime, already given an initial vigorous and cohesive response by launching the new neighbourhood policy, in which it sets out a new unified concept for its external relations with neighbouring areas. It has also launched a more incisive policy on respect for human rights and democracy which, thanks, not least, to the substantial contribution made by the Commission, is already being implemented.
It is in this new and promising context that the Italian Presidency intends to discharge its great responsibility fully by putting every possible effort, and all the energies that such an event requires, into the Naples Conference. This reinvigoration that we have in mind will only, however, be worthy of this name – it will, in other words, be qualitative – if it is able to restore to us a vital, dynamic Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. This exercise must not just involve officials and policy-makers but must ultimately be addressed to public opinion in our countries. It is worth specifying at this point that ‘a solid footing’ means something very simple in this context: giving the Barcelona Process the instruments, structures and mechanisms that will bring the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership into contact with public opinion, giving it the ability to have a positive impact on everyday life and to support and respect the various different viewpoints.
It is only in this way that a genuine, strong partnership between the two shores of the Mediterranean can be consolidated. In this perspective, the outcome that we, the 35 Euro-Mediterranean Partners, hope to see emerge from the Naples Conference is an enhancement of the Barcelona Process through three new instruments designed to bring the Partnership into closer contact with the keenest aspirations of civil societies in the region. I am referring, firstly – and I am particularly pleased to be able to do so here today – to the creation of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, which will be given a place with consultative functions in the Barcelona Process; secondly, to the creation of the Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for Dialogue between Cultures and Civilisations; and, lastly, to the new institutional and operational structure that the Partners will be deciding on for the future of the Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership Fund, which was set up within the EIB just over a year ago to promote investment in the private sector – in particular small and medium-sized enterprises – in the countries on the southern shore of the Mediterranean.
We are certain that these measures would give the Partnership a powerful boost, allowing it to forge ahead independently and giving it a capacity for action generated by the demands of civil society as conveyed through the parliamentary channel, by virtuous circles nourished by the mutual respect that synergistic interaction between cultures can instil, and, lastly, by a financial institution that is increasingly in tune with the specific needs of beneficiary countries and endowed with a wider and better organised range of instruments through which to act.
These are the underlying reasons and concerns to which the three key priorities set for the Ministerial Conference in early December correspond, priorities which we have interpreted in the light of the building of a reinvigorated partnership between the two shores of the Mediterranean. The events of recent months have shown this to be increasingly essential if conditions of peace and political, economic and social stability are to prevail in the region."@en1
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