Brussels, 04/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - A brochure restatating the priorities of regional cooperation within the European neighbourhood policy, in the East and in the South, has just been published online by the European Commission, more specifically by its Neighbourhood Info Centre. In it, it sets out the areas of action and priority actions in both areas.
This policy sets in place the following thematic instruments: the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR); the Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation (INSC); the thematic programme for the environment and sustainable management of natural resources, including energy; the thematic programme “Non-state actors and local authorities in development”; the thematic programme for food security; the thematic programme “Migration and asylum”; the “Social and Human Development” programme and the Stability Instrument.
The brochure provides a detailed chronology of the development of cooperation with the Mediterranean area, with just one factual error: its origin is stated as November 1995 (launch of the Barcelona process), whereas its implementation actually dates back to the Treaty of Rome: the first agreements were signed as early as 1969 with Tunisia and Morocco and this cooperation has, since 1977, been extended to the Mashraq (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and then Syria). (FB/transl.fl)