16/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - French MEP Kader Arif (PES), who is rapporteur at the European Parliament on the Euromed free trade area (the report being voted during the March session in Strasbourg) presented to expatriate activists of his party in Maghreb the broad lines of the proposals held by Ségolène Royal, Socialist candidate to the French presidential elections, on the future of Euromed relations. The aim of the Euro-Mediterranean free trade area must remain that of “trade to the service of development and reduction of poverty”, said Mr Arif during a special meeting held last week in Casablanca. He asserted that Ségolène Royal “makes this a priority”. The Socialist party hopes to make this zone “a stabilised area of peace”. On the matter of migration, Mr Arif said that the countries on the southern rim of the Mediterranean should not “protect the European fortress”. He also considers that “Europe should not pillage African brains as it did African resources”. (fb)