Euro-mediterranean forum condemns terrorism, calls for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations

The Euro-Mediterranean parliamentary forum, which held an extraordinary meeting in Brussels Thursday, condemned terrorism and called for the immediate resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

The meeting was convened at the initiative of the forum co-chairmen, speaker of the Moroccan lower house, Abdelouahed Radi, and Speaker of the European Parliament, Ms Nicole Fontaine, to debate means of fostering inter-cultural dialogue after the terror attacks of last September 11 against the USA.

European and Mediterranean mps who condemned the terror attacks stressed that all actions conducted to root out terrorism must be appropriate and targeted, to spare innocent civil victims.

They also called for the immediate resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, underlining that the main goal of these negotiations must be the establishment of a Palestinian state and the end of Israeli occupation.

The mps called for deeper dialogue between cultures, civilizations and religions to promote mutual understanding between the people of the two shores of the Mediterranean, stressing the need to grant in this regard a special attention to educational systems and to youth training programs.

They urged the European Union and all the parties to the Barcelona process to place Euro-Mediterranean cooperation on top of their foreign policy priorities and to fill in the economic gap between the two shores of the Mediterranean.

The Euro-Mediterranean parliamentary forum was set up in 1998 as one of the accompanying mechanisms of the Barcelona process.