Brussels, 09/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - At his press conference on the euro with Pedro Solbes, the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, answered questions about the relaunch of the EuroMediterranean process, saying he had discussed the issue the day before with José Maria Aznar (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.8 for the two politicians' remarks) and they had decided to make progress. The President of the Commission laid particular emphasis on:
Setting up a EuroMediterranean Bank. We are in the process of deciding whether the bank should have an "autonomous" structure or whether it would be better to avoid creating redundant institutions and make it a subsidiary in a sense of the European Investment Bank, noted Mr Prodi again. He said the important thing was for bankers, officials and business leaders from Europe and Mediterranean countries to work together since they all needed to share experiences and merge the different ways of thinking from either side of the Mediterranean.
Encouraging regional co-operation between either side of the Mediterranean since there would be identical policies in most respects but account had to be taken of the need to extend regional co-operation between specific countries. Mr Prodi noted, for example, that Maghreb countries were ready for a policy of cooperating very closely with one another.