Brussels, 19/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - Trade ministers from the 35 countries of the EuroMed area will hold their 6th annual meeting, which will focus on setting up a free trade area, in Lisbon on Sunday 21 October. Ministers will take stock of on-going discussions on the liberalisation of services and the right of establishment in trade between the EU and the southern Mediterranean counties. The waystage assessment is likely to be positive even though there has been no formal agreement in “region to region” discussions and time has come to move, in parallel, to more concrete and detailed bilateral negotiations. Also likely to be discussed are the legal framework and the treatment of disputes in the EuroMed area, in order to give operators greater security in trade and transactions. On the agenda, too, are an important point on getting greater complementarity in industrial production, and a discussion on liberalising agricultural trade. The general aim is to increase regional integration and complementarity. The aim of setting up the wide free trade area by 2010 would seem still to be on course. (F.B.)