Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-23-Speech-3-013"
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"en.20050223.5.3-013"2
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".
Mr President, I have already had occasion to stress how important this presidency considers Mediterranean policy to be when meeting with the Committee on Foreign Affairs. It is in fact the continuation of a process that began when the European Council decided to extend the European Union’s common strategy for this region, a region to which a number of Member States to some extent also belong. We have therefore demonstrated the EU’s substantial interest in and firm commitment to this region.
This extension will allow the European Union’s relations with the Mediterranean region to be examined in the light of the European Council’s assessment of the strategic partnership for the Mediterranean and the Middle East in June 2005, of the Barcelona Process in the context of its tenth anniversary in 2005 and of the development of European neighbourhood policy over the same period. This commitment was reiterated at the recent Euro-Mediterranean ministerial meeting in The Hague on 29 and 30 November 2004, which confirmed the centrality of the Barcelona Process, backed up by the European neighbourhood policy for the Mediterranean. It is a process whereby the European Union and the Mediterranean partners work together towards political, economic and social reform objectives involving the societies concerned. Those same objectives are also taken up in the European Union’s strategic partnership for the Mediterranean region and the Middle East. More than ever, the Euro-Mediterranean partnership is an essential and special regional framework for dialogue and cooperation between the two shores of the Mediterranean. The meeting in The Hague was the second ministerial meeting following the meeting held in Naples and preceding the one to be held in Luxembourg on 30 and 31 May 2005. In this context, preparations have already begun for the tenth anniversary of the Barcelona Process, which will be marked in Barcelona in November 2005. Ministers have also agreed to undertake an overall review of the process and declare 2005 the year of the Mediterranean.
So far as the European Union’s political and security dialogue with its Mediterranean partners is concerned, the Hague ministerial meeting confirmed the progress that has been made with cooperation in counter-terrorism, regional security and the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, as well as European security and defence policy. Partnership measures like the holding of a diplomatic seminar in Malta, cooperation in the field of civil defence and disaster management, or the Euro-Mediterranean Study Commission or EuroMeSCo network of foreign policy institutes, are making a substantial contribution to bringing the Euro-Mediterranean partners closer together. These efforts are also aimed at the implementation of political reforms and cooperation on human rights and democratisation, and are based on civil society through commitments entered into either by way of association agreements or, where necessary, as part of European neighbourhood policy. In this connection, the action plans agreed with a number of partners give a central place to human rights, democratisation, good governance and strengthening the rule of law. In like vein, the creation of the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue of Cultures is a key step in the implementation of the Barcelona Process’s social, cultural and human partnership. All members of the partnership must take advantage of its inauguration to increase the visibility of the Barcelona Process on both sides of the Mediterranean.
Mr President, I believe this is an historic moment, especially as far as the Middle East conflict is concerned. I believe the Barcelona Process should both accompany the relaunching of the peace process and also benefit from its relaunch, and I believe Europe’s future is also the future of the Mediterranean region, the future of its development, the future of cultural exchange and the future of cooperation with those who are very close to us."@en1
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