Speech by Mr. Fouad Mebazaâ,

 President of the Chamber of Deputies,

 concerning the working paper on

 “ the Mediterranean partners’ opinions with

regard to the European Strategy”

 

 

Mr. The President,

Dear Colleagues,

I have the pleasure to express my sincere salutations to the delegations’ chairpersons and members for sharing our works in this session .

Special thanks are due to my brother and close friend Dr. Ahmed Fathi Sorour, President of the Egyptian People’s Assembly and Chairman of the Bureau of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly ( EMPA) for his cordial welcome and perfect organization of our works .

 

Mr. The President,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is worth reminding that the Bureau of the EMPA has held three meetings and that its three commissions held a number of founding meetings, which were succeeded by others in different venues, in the headquarters of the European Parliament in Brussels in September 2004 .

 All of these meetings tackled issues related to the prospects of the cooperation and partnership relations between the Mediterranean countries and the EU. They attempted, mainly, to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the Euro-Mediterranean countries’ participation in the Barcelona process on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Barcelona Declaration .

In its latest meeting held in Cairo on June 30, 2004, the Bureau of the EMPA  decided that Tunisia would prepare a working paper on behalf of all South Mediterranean countries on “ the Mediterranean partner’s opinions with regard to the European strategy”  .

The Tunisian Chamber of Deputies has the honor to elaborate such a paper which were already distributed to you and which included various political, economic, social and cultural issues that consist, especially, of the close relations between the North and the South, called the “ Neighboring policy” between the EU and its Mediterranean neighbors .

This paper focused on how to foster the political dialogue and the security cooperation between the Northern and southern countries, unify efforts with a  view to eradicating terrorism and extremism, set up a behavior code to wipe out this phenomenon under the auspices of the UN and eliminate tension spots, mainly those in the Middle East .

On the one hand, we have expressed, in this paper, our commitment to seeing the Mediterranean basin develop into a truly stable and prosperous region by bringing the ties between its countries to a new era of equitable economic partnership, intensifying investments between them, developing an adequate financial cooperation, in terms of quantity and quality, with their increasing needs, establishing an appropriate ground for new impetus for the high value-added and technological activities, carrying on dialogue and coordination between all countries of the region and developing diversified cooperation programmes in order to achieve a comprehensive development whereby the environment is well protected .

 

 On the other hand, we stressed the importance of promoting solidarity between all peoples through their active participation in the different social, cultural and humanitarian events that aim at enhancing mutual understanding between cultures and civil societies .

In addition, this paper contains other issues which could be further enriched through studies and discussions .

We wish that this paper be able to translate the different visions performed by the parliaments of the southern countries and, thereby, convey their attitudes and worries on the main issues related to the Euro-Mediterranean space, mainly the issue of the European strategy .

We also hope that the contents of this paper be compatible with the Northern countries’ visions and conceptions with regard to the future of the cooperation and partnership relations following Barcelona Declaration .

Being so, this paper could stand for as a very appropriate starting point for our works .