Declaration on Euro-Mediterranean parliamentary cooperation adopted

The first conference of speakers of Euro-Mediterranean parliaments held in Palma de Majorca, Spain, wound up its two-day proceedings on Monday by the adoption of a declaration on Euro-Mediterranean parliamentary cooperation.

In the declaration, the speakers pledged to take the necessary measures to speed up the materialization of the goals set in the Barcelona declaration that provides for a Euro-Mediterranean partnership targeting a global and sustained development in the region.

The speakers also convened to set up a forum of female parliamentarians and to initiate parliamentary dialogue at the Mediterranean and Euro-Mediterranean levels in a bid to consolidate civil society, political stability and social peace in the region.

They likewise pledged to speed up the setting up of a free-trade area in the Mediterranean, to implement a social protection policy, to foster economic complementarity between the countries of the region and to ratify the soonest possible the Euro-Mediterranean association accords.

In matters of human rights, participants renewed their commitment to protecting human rights and consolidating the rule of law through institutional relations and cooperation between the national parliaments and the governments of Euro-Mediterranean countries.

In the declaration that provides for the exchange of expertise in matters of environment protection, trade, employment and health, the participants voiced determination to contribute to struggle against terrorism, corruption, organized crime and illegal trade through the creation of specialized parliamentary committees and to back the efforts meant to struggle against the proliferation of mass destruction weapons in the region as stipulated in the Barcelona declaration.