Confidence-building in the Mediterranean

The 22nd Euro-Mediterranean Information and Training meeting, or Malta Seminar, as it has become known, was opened on Friday at the Westin Dragonara Resort by Foreign Minister Michael Frendo, who highlighted the numerous issues that need to be addressed so that the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership is strengthened in future.

Dr Frendo began his address by stipulating that Malta's foreign policy priority of promoting a more enhanced structured dialogue between the European Union and the Arab League is essential if closer Euro-Mediterranean relations are to be realised.

Dr Frendo indicated that Malta believes that the time has come to focus more Euro-Mediterranean energy on delivering practical co-operation in areas where such measures are urgently required. This includes co-operative measures in the field of management of migration control, environment control and also economic development.

The minister stated that preparatory discussions ahead of the ministerial meeting, scheduled to take place during the Portuguese Presidency later this year, that will focus on legal and illegal migration and migration and development, should concentrate on identifying practical measures that can be introduced in the short term to start addressing this phenomenon in a more concerted manner.

The success of co-ordinating Euro-Mediterranean relations will be determined by the extent to which interaction between the two banks of the Mediterranean contributes to an improvement in the standard of living of all peoples. A more integrated engagement should focus on immediately enhancing Euro-Arab R&D in the field of innovation, especially when it comes to renewable and alternative energy.

Malta initiative

EuroMedITI (the Euro-Mediterranean Initiative for Technology and Innovation) is an initiative launched by Malta early this year and is already opening up partnerships between research, business and governmental sectors supporting innovation policies. Water and environment technologies, sustainable energy technologies, marine technologies, and Information and Communication technologies are the main areas of co-operation being focused on.

EuroMedITI aims to develop and empower an outstanding technology and innovation platform in the Mediterranean markets for business-driven services in training, applied research and development, testing and prototyping, incubation, and dissemination in the region. This will appeal directly to industries searching for a location to execute applied research and development under favourable conditions, and a hub to access the emerging Mediterranean market of approximately 400 million people.

Dr Frendo also stipulated that an enhanced Euro-Mediterranean dialogue needs to focus much more seriously on climate policy. This should include the development of a tsunami early warning system.

Strengthening such practical policy dialogue mechanisms will add momentum to the Euro-Med Partnership Five Year Work Programme that is currently being implemented and which seeks to integrate the Mediterranean partner countries closer into the fabric of European society.

The Five Year Euro-Med Work Programme (2006-2010) also calls for the "launching of a substantial scholarships scheme for university students from Euro-Mediterranean partner countries and increase mobility grants for higher education staff".

Dr Frendo reiterated that the educational field is a sector where much more needs to be done. The European Commission together with its member states needs to trigger both public and private stakeholders to work hand in hand with a long-term perspective to attract a larger number of Arab students to their shores. This will of course require an updating of procedures for a visa facilitation mechanism, making them more user friendly for such a category of professionals.

Future Euro-Med programmes need to ensure that people-to-people interaction is at the forefront, especially young people. It is essential that a much larger number of students from the Arab world are given the opportunity to study at EU universities. The Bologna Process must be made functional to them. The same goes for joint EU-Arab research projects. The EU must introduce a package of programmes that seeks to tap into the wealth of intelligence in the Euro-Med region via scholarships, seminars, and other initiatives. The Euro-Med Education ministerial meeting to be held in Cairo in June should serve as a catalyst in this regard.

Dr Frendo stated that when it comes to diplomatic training, Malta has already established itself as a regional centre of excellence in the Mediterranean through its educational and training institution, the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies (MEDAC) where over 400 graduates have been trained in the last 17 years.

Since 1996, MEDAC, together with the European Commission and the Maltese Foreign Ministry, has also been responsible for co-ordinating the Euro-Mediterranean Information and Training Seminars, which are an official confidence-building mechanism of the Barcelona Process, where more than 600 diplomats have had the opportunity to interact.