Maltese MEP to draw up Euro-Med aid document

Maltese MEP Simon Busuttil will shortly begin work on a consultative paper dealing with the European Union's Meda programme that extends financial assistance to non-EU Mediterranean states.

The paper is a private initiative by Dr Busuttil who is working in conjunction with the chairman of the European Parliament's budget committee, Gianni Pittelli.

Dr Busuttil, told a meeting of the first session of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly held in Cairo, Egypt, last week, the document will take stock of the Meda experience and the lessons that can be drawn from it. As such, it will serve as a good basis for the debate on the new European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) that will replace Meda from 2007.

He said implementation of the Meda programme has improved remarkably over the past years. The efforts undertaken to improve the take-up of available funding have borne fruit, he added. Once the working document is launched later this year, Dr Busuttil said he will seek to call a public hearing on the subject involving the interested parties.

Malta was also represented at the Euro-Med Parliamentary Assembly by a delegation from the Maltese Parliament that included Nationalist MPs Michael Asciak and Joseph Cassar and Labour MP Noel Farrugia.

Altogether, 240 parliamentarians from the EU and the 10 non-EU partners (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Turkey) participated in the assembly.

The session wound up with the adoption of resolutions drafted by the three standing committees and a final declaration. The delegates stressed the need to involve civil society in the Euro-Mediterranean partnership so as to create an "Alliance of Civilisations" between both shores of the Mediterranean.

Securing a compromise on the texts dealing with the Middle East and Lebanon proved a hard nut to crack. In the case of the Middle East, the final statement recognises each side's concerns, including the problem of refugees for the Palestinians and the issue of security for the Israelis. But it calls "on both parties to refrain from any action that may undermine the process of achieving lasting peace".

Immigration was also dealt with in a resolution moved by the committee for exchanges between civil societies and culture. The delegates underlined that the issue must be addressed "through a common European policy and an effective partnership with countries of origin and transit". They called for "a co-development strategy between partner countries" and welcomed initiatives by the European Commission, including the Green Paper on the Management of Economic Migration, and stressed that any initiative should comply with the rule of law and international conventions.