Ljubljana, 20/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - The EuroMed area Economic and Social Councils (ESC), meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on Thursday 16 and Friday 17 November reaffirmed their belief in the Barcelona Process. “We have to go beyond our differences and work together,” said Dimitris Dilitiriadis on behalf of the European ESC. “The overall picture is positive,” although “much remains to be done” said Mr Dimitiriadis, wondering about what the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), which “is still not understood”, would bring. The social partners held a special session on this issue and undertook to maintain “regular monitoring” of its development. Mr Dimitriadis also highlighted how weak Community support was for civil society and governance projects. “Only €6 million from a total budget of €93 million have been given to governance,” he said. There also had to be support for combating poverty, which the EuroMediterranean ESCs intend to make one of the main thrusts of their joint work. Similarly, emphasis was to be put on the promotion of democracy and dialogue between civilisations and, in particular, on the role of civil society. The Tunisians ands Moroccans highlighted their experiences in this area (civil society organisations are part of the Tunisian ESC). Employment was also a major topic of discussion. The next three EU Presidencies have said that employment will be among their priorities, Germany in the first half of next year with a EuroMed employment conference in March 2007, then Portugal with a meeting on employment and migration at the end of 2007. In the first six months of 2008, Slovenia intends hold a tripartite meeting on the development of social dialogue in Europe and in the Mediterranean.
Immigration was also discussed. Algeria launched the initiative of a meeting involving not only interior ministers but also their employment and social affairs counterparts. The ESCs determined to return to hold a more in-depth debate on gender equality at their next “Summit” in 2008, but undertook immediately to implement decisions taken a few days earlier by the ministerial conference on women which took place in Istanbul.
At the start of the session, Slovenian Prime Minister Janes Janša stressed “the realisation of the importance of the common area”. He said that one of the “major tasks of the Slovenian Presidency of the EU, in the first half of 2008, will be inter-cultural dialogue and the dialogue between civilisations”. In the “joint commitment to fight all the various forms of cross-border crime”, including terrorism, “it would seem appropriate not to follow simplified and radical responses”, but “to be based on an ethical denominator common to all cultures, religions and civilisations”. This statement of faith was all the more welcome after the joint statement signed by employers' and union representatives of all the Arab countries, complaining about the poor reception they received at Ljubljana. (fb)