Malta yesterday welcomed the launch of a new Mediterranean Union - a strengthened partnership between the EU and the Mediterranean countries - and empasised the need that the Mediterranean rim countries tackle with urgency the prevailing climate change challenges.
Addressing 43 leaders at the Grand Palais, in the heart of Paris, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi appealed to all Mediterranean neighbours to work hand in hand to tackle this important environmental hurdle.
"Our region can be a testing ground for new technologies that will help us switch to a low-carbon future while improving our economic well-being," the Prime Minister said.
Reflecting one of his government's electoral promises to invest in a mega alternative energy project, Dr Gonzi said that Malta is willing to cooperate particularly with its Mediterranean partners on the further development of offshore wind energy facilities.
"Malta is interested in participating in the research and development of deep water wind farm technology and this to address the engineering and economic challenges of this technology. The development of this deep water wind farm technology would also open significant areas of wind power exploitation in the Mediterranean basin and elsewhere."
Although progress of offshore wind farm technology is rapidly advancing, deep water offshore wind farms, like the ones needed by Malta, are still under-developed and very expensive.
The government has pledged to invest in a 75- to 100-Mega Watt offshore wind farm 20 miles off the shores of Malta over the next five years. Malta is also bound by its EU obligations to produce 20 per cent of all its energy needs by 2020 from alternative energy sources.
The Paris Med Union summit, one of the highlights of the French EU Presidency, was dominated by the presence around one table of the main protagonists of the Middle East peace process including Israel, Syria and the Palestinian Authority.
Following a meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian top diplomats in the margins of the summit, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the two sides had never been so close to reaching an agreement with the Palestinians as now. On his part, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said both were serious and wanted peace.
The summit's host, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, said at the opening of the meeting that the aim was to see that the region was a place where people could love each other instead of make war.
Libya was the only state to boycott the summit with Muammar Gaddafi describing the new set up as "a new form of colonialism".