Euro-mediterranean partnership committee meets in Marrakesh

The Standing committee for Euro-Mediterranean partnership is holding a plenary session in Marrakesh this Nov. 11-12 under the topic "towards 2010, the Mediterranean, a space for Euro-Mediterranean cooperation and partnership."

Participants in the session, meant to enhance the Euro-Mediterranean partnership policy of local and regional authorities, have all voiced determination to promote Euro-Mediterranean cooperation in the economic, social and cultural realms. They underlined the necessity to promote the development of Mediterranean countries, to fight the plagues affecting the region, such as illegal emigration, illiteracy, rural exodus, and unhealthy housing.

They also underlined the importance of regional development as a means to accompany ongoing reforms in several countries and that touch administration, justice, local affairs management, as well as the promotion of new information technologies and basic infrastructures (roads, water and electricity supply) and struggle against poverty.

The participants called for further incentives to investors and for greater efforts to promote efficient communication among the committee members and appealed for adequate means to establish peace in the Middle East and fight terrorism.

The standing committee for Euro-Mediterranean partnership musters 86 members from the 27 Euro-Mediterranean countries. These members are elected at the local or regional levels. The committee strives to promote exchanges and economic, cultural and tourism relations between the municipalities of the two shores of the Mediterranean. It also eases the granting of assistance, donations and loans in the frame of the European Union Systems.

The chairman of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, voiced, in a message to the committee's plenary session, the EU resolve to give a new momentum to its relations with Mediterranean countries and to encourage a more active policy in this region.

He underlined the need to consolidate the EU's relations with the Mediterranean partners to promote stability and economic and social development in the region.