Toledo, 19/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - Promising things happened in Toledo this year for economic and trade integration of both sides of the Mediterranean and the spirit of dialogue made clear progress, said European Commissioner Pascal Lamy after the 2nd EuroMed Trade Ministers Conference on 19 March. The President of the Council, Rodrigo Rato, mentioned the participants' commitment to creating an integrated trading area by 2010, noting with pleasure the practical and concrete approach taken without any generic declarations by the 27 ministers (in May 2001 many of the interventions had taken a distinctly more political tone, Ed). We demonstrated that the Barcelona process has all the necessary ingredients for a common identity, added Youssef Boutros Ghali, Egyptian trade minister. The results of the conference include the EU's offer to its Mediterranean partners to integrate the pan-European accumulation of origin system (a non-compulsory scheme that the European Commission says will enable trading opportunities to be raised by 40%); setting up a working group to explore the potential of simplifying and improving customs procedures and technical standardisation and the like; adopting a solid programme for the working group on services in the perspective of extending the free trade zone to services as soon as possible (this will be the subject of a meeting in the second half of 2003); and the organisation of informal meetings with the Mediterranean partners on the Doha process.