Brussels, 25/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Follow-up Committee to the Barcelona Process, which meets on 26 and 27 March in Brussels, will be summing up global Euro-Mediterranean relations, and the appropriate follow-ups to the Valencia "Plan of Action" (adopted by the last ministerial meeting, which was held last year), and the results of recent regionally-themed meetings (energy, inter-company relations, the Euro and the Mediterranean, etc).
The Committee will also be looking at the co-operation to be established in the fields of culture and information: it will mainly be an exchange of views on the basic principles to guide inter-cultural relations between the two sides, with the awareness, however, that the planned Euro-Mediterranean Foundation has made almost no progress to date in its design, which is mainly down to the difficulty of agreeing on how to finance its activities. Furthermore, the high-level officials from twenty-seven countries will open discussions on putting into place a regional Euro-Mediterranean programme on communication and information. They will also be looking at the state of play of Euromesco activities (a common structure bringing together institutes of political studies): the institute will present its report to representatives of the twenty-seven countries.
The Committee is also to discuss various aspects of politics and security, the state of progress in the planned Parliamentary forum, whose session, planned for this week in Crete, has been put back due to the current situation in the region.