Brussels, 24/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - The high-level officials of the monitoring committee for the Barcelona process met in Brussels on 19 May to prepare for the 7th ministerial EuroMed session to be held in Luxembourg on 30 and 31 May. Their work focused on the drafting of conclusions to be submitted for the approval of the ministers, mainly stemming from European wishes to step up dialogue on political issues and to create monitoring bodies for the electoral process and the media to ensure their freedom of expression. Germany, and especially the United Kingdom, to take over the Presidency of the EU as of July, submitted memoranda urging efforts to create this kind of policy of support for democratisation, and opposing infringements of human rights in the partner countries, to be speeded up. During the discussion and in their amendments to the draft ministerial conclusions, the EU's Mediterranean partners appeared to accept the principle, but took pains to stress that the procedure must be carried out in full respect of the specific characteristics of each country. They also agreed to the principle of more formal involvement of civil society organisations in work under the EuroMed process. From a European point of view, the priority is to make them into direct players in dialogue between the countries of the region. The platform of NGOs and Euro-Mediterranean associations presented the officials with the conclusions of their recent forum, held in Luxembourg in April, at this meeting. The committee then met as the Council of Governors of the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the dialogue between cultures.
On 18 May, the officials, together with specialists in the fight against terrorism, held an ad hoc meeting on terrorism. The European coordinator for the fight against terrorism, Gijs De Vries, detailed measures taken by the EU in this area and the prospect of EuroMed cooperation via information exchanges, isolating funding sources of terrorism, protection infrastructure and bringing the fight against terrorism into other policies. The deputy director of Europol, Jens Henrik Höjbjerg, contributed to the debate.