Brussels, 01/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - Gianfranco Fini, the president of the Chamber of Italian Deputies and acting president of the EMPA (Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly) visited Tunis on 29 and 30 June. He said that he was in favour of transforming the Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership (FEMIP), the financial instrument managed by the EIB, into a Euro-Mediterranean Development Bank and indicated that Italy and the EMPA supported this proposal, which is a “necessary mechanism for developing small and medium-sized enterprises”. He said that he was optimistic about this project being successfully completed. He was welcomed by his Tunisian counterpart, Fouad Mebazâa, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, who said that the setting up of the Mediterranean partnership was what they both wanted, “in solidarity and balance, as part of the Union for the Mediterranean (UPM)”. According to a Tunisian press release, on the question of the situation in the Middle East, they “highlighted the need to step up efforts and initiatives for providing a boost to the peace process and an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people, which has been fighting for its right to freedom and dignity”. They also highlighted “the importance of increasing the dialogue, bringing points of view closer together and relaunching negotiations, which is the best way of creating peace and security in the Middle East region. They also underlined the role of the European Union in this domain”.
This profession of faith does not mean that certain EMPA members in Brussels had forgotten that the acting president had blocked adoption of a declaration on the Middle East, which he judged biased against Israel, according to certain commentaries reported at the European Parliament. At a meeting on 18 June in Palermo, the EMPA Bureau (of which Fini is a member, together with the president of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, and their two Moroccan and Jordanian colleagues) was unable to reach an agreement on a text underlining widespread concern regarding the situation in Gaza. A meeting of the EMPA political committee is expected to take place this Thursday in Brussels to relaunch discussions on this text and probably adopt it at this level, even though this response is seen to be rather late in the day, notwithstanding a simple declaration from its president.
EMPA is still finding it difficult to fully function. During the Bureau meeting on 18 June, it again highlighted the need to “acquire a legal personality for its secretariat”. The most recent assembly plenary on 14 March 2010 adopted recommendations on setting up a secretariat and financial procedures for internal management. In this context, the bureau pointed out in Palermo that ongoing discussions for the adoption of an internal regulation were premature. “The bureau considers that the subject (statutes) should be settled before other measures are envisaged” and for this reason the meeting on internal mechanisms (workgroup on the regulation) planned for 29 June, has postponed. A meeting has been planned for 29 September, in an attempt to provide direction and substance to this assembly, whose effective functioning essentially depends upon the European Parliament. The current Italian presidency and the previous Jordanian presidency are, according to mutual sources, likely to be disappointed. (F.B./transl.fl)