Brussels, 27/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament and the Council of Europe are jointly organising, in Strasbourg on 28 and 29 September, with the collaboration of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP), a conference on Euro-Mediterranean agriculture, the second of its kind after that held on 14 and 15 June 2001. The theme of the conference was Euro-Mediterranean agricultural and rural policy in a globalised framework. Expected to attend are Juha Korkeaoja, Finnish Minister for Agriculture and Forests representing the Finnish Presidency of the EU Council, Agriculture Commissioner Marian Fischer Boel, and a number of ministers, senior officials and experts from various EuroMed zone countries. Three discussion subjects are suggested: construction of an Euro-Mediterranean agricultural policy in the context of WTO trade, Mediterranean rural development through sustainable resource management, and the improved status of the Mediterranean identity of agricultural produce and market organisation.
Those organising the conference believe a new context is taking shape in the Mediterranean marked by uncertainty over the futures of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership and by the recent suspension of WTO talks. The new situation is also due to the virtual standstill of the Barcelona process (after the stalled summit held for the 10th anniversary of the process in Barcelona) and the emergence of ENP (European Neighbourhood Policy). Neighbourhood policy gives rise to a number of questions given the (apparent) apprehension about the weakening of the multilateral aspect of the Barcelona agreement to the benefit of excessive bilateralism governing relations between the European Union and the countries of the south and eastern Mediterranean, the organisers say. Parliamentarians of the EU and Council of Europe, however, say regional and transnational dialogue must not only continue but must above all be consolidated to provide better prospects for economic development in the Mediterranean Basin. In agriculture in particular, “signs of opening” are to be seen, however.
We recall that a first conference of Euro-Mediterranean farm minister had been held in 2003 in Venice and that, in November 2005, the Commission tabled a Roadmap for Agriculture.