Since the Barcelona Conference in November 1995, the European Parliament has adopted a host of reports and resolutions concerning the Mediterranean region, many of them at the behest of the Socialist Group. The Group has been advocating the strengthening of partnership ties on both sides of the Mediterranean in order to achieve a single goal: stability in the region.

 

It was back in 1993 that the Socialist Group first called for the creation of a Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Forum with the job of consolidating relations between Europe and Mediterranean countries.

 

This Forum, which brought together representatives of people from both sides at several gatherings, has now been transformed into the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly (EMPA), the inaugural session for which was held on 22 and 23 March at Vouliagmeni in Athens.

 

The EMPA’s role is to ensure the smooth operation of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership as well as the correct application of association agreements concluded between the European Union and its Mediterranean partner countries.

The number of actions has subsequently increased, as demonstrated by the two Sakellariou reports in October 1993 and January 1997, the staging of a conference in Marseilles on 20 October 2000 (presentation of the Socialist manifesto for a Mediterranean policy) and the Euro-Maghreb conference of women parliamentarians and women from civil society in Casablanca on 22 June 2002. Both conferences were organised by the PES Group.

 

The Mediterranean region has been the scene of bloody conflicts such as the one currently reverberating in the Middle East. Potential unrest also bubbles beneath the surface on an array of problems that include the sharing of water supplies, flows of migrants, wholesale youth dissatisfaction and the ignored aspirations of intolerant populations. Only a genuine Mediterranean policy will be able to defuse these ticking time bombs. The countries to the South need to become sustained partners, associates and allies of Europe in the perspective of an open Mediterranean region that is better able to meet the challenge of globalisation.

 

Another reason for fermenting this partnership is to facilitate economic integration and complementarity, promote shared and sustained growth, and rebalance the distinctive social environments. The partnership is designed to ensure mutual respect and tolerance in order to find peaceful solutions to sensitive issues involving security, migration and cultural dignity.

 

As part of the same movement, the Socialist Group is supporting cooperation projects orientated towards decentralisation and civil solidarity: where the former serves to develop local democracy and stabilise often overlooked populations, the latter focuses on non-governmental organisations, trade unions and women’s associations.

 

 

 

 

22/06/2002 :- Conclusions, 2nd euro-maghreb women’s meeting on the men/women partnership in politics. Casablanca, 22nd June 2002