Euro-Mediterranean Partnership: Programme for Barcelona Conference
The forthcoming Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference, scheduled to take place in Barcelona in November 1995, was discussed at length by the Heads of State of the 15 Member States of the European Union during the last European Council in Cannes. The Council stressed the importance of this conference in providing the countries of the European Union and their eastern and western Mediterranean partners with "an unprecedented opportunity to decide together what their future relationship should be." In its relations with these countries, the European Union's objective is to ensure stability and prosperity in the Mediterranean region. This calls for political dialogue, sustainable and balanced economic and social development, the reduction of poverty, and greater understanding between cultures through reinforcement of the human dimension in exchanges. The European Union seeks to establish a Euro-Mediterranean partnership, based on strengthening democracy and respect for human rights, which would comprise the following three main aspects: - A political and security aspect; - An economic and financial aspect; - A social and human aspect. It is hoped that the Euro-Mediterranean Conference will lay the foundations for the Euro-Mediterranean partnership by adopting a joint document on the three main aspects referred to above. Particular areas of interest to be discussed include: - Nuclear non-proliferation; - Environment; - Energy; - Transport; - Information technology and telecommunications; - Research and development; - Education and training; - Migration; - Culture and the media; - Health; - Youth. The Barcelona conference should provide the basis for an on-going process and it is expected that the various activities or the Euro-Mediterranean partnership will be followed up by ad hoc thematic meetings of ministers, senior officials and experts, exchanges of experience and information and any other appropriate means agreed by the various parties. The Union will, in addition, propose to its partners the principle of regular meetings at Foreign minister level, the frequency of which will be determined by common agreement. The overall dialogue foreseen within the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership should be seen as a supplement to, and not a replacement for, bi-lateral agreements between the EU and each Mediterranean State.