Brussels, 28/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - The countries of the western Mediterranean basin grouped within the “5+5” - an informal framework for bilateral cooperation and consultation among ten countries (Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia for the southern rim and Spain, France, Malta, Portugal and Italy for the northern rim of the Mediterranean) - held their first meeting on agriculture and food security in Algiers on Wednesday 27 November. The gathering took place further to a recommendation from the heads of state of the western Mediterranean during their last summit in Malta.
Three main themes were discussed in Algiers: - the creation of a food security observatory, the promotion of investment and of public-private and private-private partnership and, finally, rural territorial development.
The official results are not yet known but, according to the media, the conference was a major step towards heightening awareness of the dangers of uncontrolled globalisation. The speakers are reported to all agree it is necessary to set mechanisms and instruments in place to control price volatility of foodstuffs on world markets.
France's Agriculture Minister Stéphane Le Foll, who chaired the meeting, said in an interview that food security is a challenge faced by the whole Mediterranean and especially the countries of the southern rim. He hoped the countries of the area would pool their agricultural and agronomic responses and their economic organisation of channels for meeting that challenge. It is, he said, a political challenge of primary importance for Euro-Mediterranean cooperation, going on to add: “We would rather have concrete projects than create institutions” as is the “case with the UfM”.
The minister spoke of the common agricultural policy (CAP) and its impact on the Mediterranean. He asserted that it is “no longer an expansive agricultural policy with export subsidies but a policy that ensures European citizens enjoy harmonious use of the land, crop diversity, and sustainability with greening. We are no longer in the eighties when export refunds could destabilise the South's agricultural production”. (FB/transl.jl)