Parliamentary conference on security, cooperation in Mediterranean opens in Marseille
Regional, Politics, 3/31/2000

More than 200 parliamentarians from some twenty countries are meeting in the southern French city of Marseille to discuss security and cooperation in the Mediterranean and attempt to reactivate dialogue between nations on the northern and southern shores.

The meeting, that started this Friday and that is the 3rd of the kind, will try to clear out the fears and misunderstandings triggered by the enlargement of the European Union or the building of a free trade zone between northern and southern Mediterranean countries by 2010.

Participants, including speakers of several parliaments, will also discuss the issue of migratory flows, management of water resources and environment protection.

In a message to the meeting, President Jacques Chirac of France renewed the wish to convene in the course of the year the first summit of Mediterranean countries "to give a new momentum to relations between the two shores of our shared sea."

In a similar message, French premier called for enhanced cooperation and increased coordination between Mediterranean peoples and states to define a regional security policy, beneficial to all.

The parliamentary conference on security and cooperation in the Mediterranean, set up by the Inter-parliamentary union in 1992, seeks to be a forum of dialogue and negotiation between the region parliaments. It links all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, in addition to Jordan and Portugal. Some other countries, such as Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Palestine participate in the forum as associates.

The first conference was held in Malaga, Spain in 1992, while La Valette, Malta, hosted the second conference in 1995.

The Moroccan delegation to the conference is led by speaker of the house of representatives (lower house of the parliament), Abdelouahed Radi.

Previous Stories:
  Interview with US officials: Libya - Sudan - and Maghreb countries, Part 2   (3/27/2000)
  Egypt to participate in meetings of Mediterranean basin forum in Portugal   (3/22/2000)
  Arab solidarity on agenda of APU meetings in Algiers   (2/15/2000)

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