Euro-Med Foreign Ministers to endorse working modalities and agree 2009 priorities

Foreign Ministers from all 43 states of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership will meet in Marseille on 3-4 November to endorse plans for the mandate, structure and institutional governance of the ‘Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean’ (UfM). This initiative, launched at the Paris Summit of 13th July, aims at injecting a renewed political momentum into the EU’s relations with the Mediterranean.

Ministers will examine the details of the Commission's proposals for the functioning of the co-presidency as well as the composition, seat and funding of the Secretariat and agree on priorities for the 2009 working programme, an EC press release says.

Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said “the global and regional challenges we jointly face underline the political and practical imperatives of upgrading our relations with our neighbours. The Barcelona Process has served us well over the past thirteen years; the achievements testify to this – but certain setbacks and limitations remind us also that there is still much to do…"

The three main items on the agenda, according to a French Presidency press release, are: reviewing the new concrete partnership projects and their implementation, clarifying the new governance introduced by the UfM and political dialogue on the regional situation. A working session will be dedicated to an assessment of the political situation and the latest developments in the region, while at the close of this meeting a forum to discuss and debate ideas involving the participation of leading actors in the Euro-Mediterranean cultural scene will take place.

EC Press Release

Presidency press release

Presidency Press Kit

EuroMed Info Centre – UfM

Contact information	n/a
News type	Inbrief
File link	http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/1611&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
Source of information	EuroMed Info Centre
Keyword(s)	Mediterranean-Union
Subject(s)
Relation	http://www.emwis.org/initiatives/mediterranean-union
Geographical coverage	EU, France, Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Palestine
News date	31/10/2008
Working language(s)	ENGLISH , FRENCH

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