Naples, 03/12/2003 (Agence Europe) - European parliamentarians- members of the EP and of the parliaments of the Member States of enlarged Europe, and their colleagues in the partner countries engaged in the Barcelona process- decided in Naples on Tuesday to change the "Euro-Mediterranean parliamentary forum", created in October 1988, into a parliamentary assembly. The decision will be formalised at the last meeting of the forum, which will also be the first meeting of the parliamentary assembly, and which should take place during the first half of 2004. "We consider this to be a major event in the history of the Euromed partnership", said EP President Pat Cox, before presenting the recommendations drawn up by the parliamentarians of both groups of countries to the Euromed Foreign Ministers in Naples. However, not all national MPs are so keen on the idea of this kind of structure (namely the British and Scandinavian parliaments, according to certain sources). In its recommendations, the forum nonetheless encourages "parliaments still reluctant about their possible involvement to join in with the Assembly's activities". These recommendations are an expression of willingness to work together on the basis of "equality, co-responsibility and solidarity" between all representatives of the future Assembly. The forum has decided on the various technical modalities of the Assembly's functioning: number of representatives, presidencies, procedure for the adoption of recommendations (which will be purely consultative in nature), and potential subjects for debate (political, security, human rights, economic and financial issues, social affairs and education, increasing standards of living, human exchanges and culture), with the option to set up ad hoc committees to tackle the more delicate subjects- such as human rights- or which call for forthright explanation. Working groups will also be set up (notably "regulation" and "migration and human exchanges").