Conference discusses the Euro neighbourhood policy

Malta, as a new member of the EU, can bring cultural, economic and geographic ties to the Euro-Mediterranean region, said Mark Fischer, the assistant director, European office of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

Together with the Academy for the Development of a Democratic Environment, Azad, the foundation held a weekend conference on the European Union and the Southern Mediterranean - The European Neighbourhood Policy and Beyond.

The German foundation and the local centre for political studies have been working together since 1976, Mr Fischer said.

With Malta's entry into the EU, the foundation felt it was the right time to address the Euro-Mediterranean partnership. "Now that the largest chunk of enlargement has been carried out, the foundation felt it was time for Europe to start looking abroad again at what is happening on its borders."

It was time to take a new step, hence the organisation of the workshop, where "ideas were exchanged to get a feeling of the situation and see how the challenges are being perceived by the various sides.

"Malta is positioned right in the middle and can explain to both sides," Mr Fischer argued.

The workshop on the European Neighbourhood Policy was organised in view of Libya possibly joining in the Barcelona Process, Azad chairman Ranier Fsadni said.

Azad maintained that the time was anyway ripe - the Mediterranean currently undergoing an important transition - for the revision of the Neighbourhood Policy, he said. The policy is designed for all Europe's neighbourhoods and the question is: to what extent should it be uniform so as to maintain consistency and fairness, and to what extent should it be tailored for particular neighbourhoods, Mr Fsadni said.

Azad was playing the role of a think-tank and the outcomes of the conference would be of an intellectual networking nature, he added.

However, since the workshop also included the participation of the influential German think-tank, this would serve to increase an understanding of the issues not only in Germany, but also in central and eastern Europe.

The conference gathered representatives from the European Commission and the Council of the EU, as well as, in their personal capacity, professors from universities, intellectuals and MPs from southern Mediterranean states, including Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. In the concluding session, Foreign Affairs Minister Michael Frendo spoke about Malta's role in the Euro-Mediterranean region and the importance of the Mediterranean dimension of its foreign policy.

"The Mediterranean dimension strengthens us in Europe and the European dimension strengthens us in the Mediterranean," he said.

Malta was clearly engaging, even within the EU, on issues that related to the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

As a small country, because it was of no threat to anyone and had no hidden agendas, Malta had a particular strength, he said.

It was a "cultural translator" because of its civilisation, language and historical developments and its knowledge of both sides of the Mediterranean.