Parliamentary speakers' conference opens on Friday

The Fourth Conference of Presidents/Speakers of Euro-Mediterranean Parliaments will be held in Malta on Friday and Saturday.

The conference, at the Radisson Baypoint Hotel, will be attended by presidents/speakers of countries within the Euro-Med Barcelona Process and, following an initiative by Mr Tabone, by the presidents/speakers of parliaments of the EU acceding states.

The last conference was held in Athens in 2002 when the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Anton Tabone, had proposed that the fourth conference be held in Malta.

The holding of the conferences stems from the call for a Euro-Mediterranean parliamentary dialogue made in the working programme attached to the Barcelona Declaration of November 1995.

The first conference of presidents/speakers of Euro-Mediterranean Parliaments was held in Palma de Mallorca in March 1999 and was attended by the 15 European Union member states and the 12 Mediterranean countries that signed the Barcelona Declaration.

The Malta conference will take stock of the progress made since the holding of the first three conferences in Palma de Mallorca, Alexandria and Athens. Participants will review the Euro-Med Ministerial Conferences held in Valencia in April 2002, the mid-term meeting held in Crete in May 2003 and that held in Naples in December 2003.

The conference will also discuss the parliamentary dialogue that is taking place within the Euro-Mediterranean space and analyse what form of linkage could be established between the newly established Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, scheduled to hold its first meeting in Athens next month, the Euro-Mediterranean Forum of Women Parliamentarians and the Conference of Presidents/Speakers of Euro-Mediterranean Parliaments.

Mr Tabone will preside over the conference.