28/08/2003 (Agence Europe) - At a press conference in Brussels on Thursday, the President of the EPP-ED group, Hans-Gert Pöttering, said that if a summit between the EU, North Africa and the Middle East (including both Palestine and Israel) does actually take place on 5 December 2003, he hoped it would decide to launch a EuroMed Parliamentary Assembly with a “representative number” of MEPs. Such an assembly could meet once a year, but work would be carried out on a regular basis in parliamentary committees, said the CDU MEP. This kind of dialogue would help us avert a clash of civilisations, which we want to avoid, said Pottering. He said he had discussed the idea with the President of the Egyptian parliament.