Brussels, 29/08/2000 (Agence Europe) - European Commission President Romano Prodi, in an article published simultaneously by the Italian daily La Repubblica and Egyptian daily Al Ahram on Tuesday, called for the Euro-Mediterranean policy to be relaunched. While Foreign Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten is expected to present a communication to the Commission next week to propose "fresh impetus for the Barcelona Process" with a view to the Euro-Mediterranean meeting on 13 November, in Marseilles, the Commission president prepares the ground for, he says, the dialogue to be rekindled: development of EIB financing and Arab and European investment, the definition of common projects in the transport and environment sectors in particular, and immigration policy. "While the European Union is enlarging to the East, its relations with the Mediterranean call for new political and geo-economic strategies that require a long-term perspective and adequate working mechanisms", writes Mr Prodi.
Funding set in place by the Meda regulation and the European Investment Bank are "a starting point for the further development of regional cooperation, today still inadequate", notes Romano Prodi, who adds that "stronger regional, global cooperation should become our top priority". He went on to speak of the sectors where "concrete achievements" are possible: water management, interlinked electricity networks, strengthening of measures to combat sea pollution, introduction of compatible industrial standards, and the diversification of agricultural production. To support investment, "we should utilize to the full the operating possibilities of the EIB and the opportunities provided by the low interest rates of the Euro area", and then "EIB funding should be flanked by that from Arab banks and private European and Arab investment capital", Mr Prodi believes.
Over and beyond economic cooperation, Romano Prodi proposes the question of immigration should be tackled. "Europe's need for new workers is bound to increase, together with immigration flows. Only through a joint effort on both sides of the Mediterranean will it be possible to handle this situation and benefit from its potential", he states, while expressing the hope of closer cooperation, including in the fight against illegal immigration. Romano Prodi takes up the European Parliament's idea of an "Observatory for Immigration", a proposal that he believes to be extremely interesting, and which deserves "careful consideration when the new EU common strategy is implemented".
Finally, Mr Prodi considers that the EU "can and must also give its contribution to religious dialogue, which plays such an important part in the reconciliation of peoples". "Human rights, the family, cultural diversity, strong local roots and religious dialogue are all values on which Europe is founded and on which Europe intends founding dialogue between the two shores of the Mediterranean", he states.