Today's Date:

Europe/Mediterranean

Informal meeting of southern European Union foreign ministers - Speech by Philippe Douste-Blazy, Minister of Foreign Affairs

Toulouse, November 4, 2005

At the last Franco-Italian summit, in Paris in early October, Gianfranco Fini put forward the idea of convening a meeting of southern European Union ministers to evince our common ambition as we look ahead to the tenth anniversary of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership.

I found this idea very interesting and after talking about it to Miguel Moratinos, whose country will be hosting the heads of State and government summit at the end of the month, I proposed we meet in Toulouse and include the British presidency, in view of its major role in the preparation of the Barcelona summit.

I am very pleased that my colleagues have come to Toulouse, demonstrating their commitment and our desire to forge common views on Mediterranean issues.

So this evening we have come together to discuss, informally – between partners for whom issues relating to the Mediterranean area are particularly important – matters of common interest and to display our common views.

The Mediterranean area is indeed a strategic one, not just for the countries directly bordering it, but also for the whole European Union and for the partners on the southern side.

More than ever, because of the challenges facing this region – migrations, economic and social development, slow progress in regional integration, persistence of misunderstandings and false perceptions on the part of the general public – we have to work in concert to find solutions which are acceptable and accepted by everyone. The European Union has the means to do this, it must also have the requisite will.

It is with this in mind that I proposed we discuss four major topics:

MIGRATIONS

Migrations: this is a major issue for all the partners in the process, both European and Mediterranean. We have reiterated our determination to act together to prevent further human tragedies.

We talked about the different courses of action we could support at the forthcoming European and Euro-Mediterranean meetings: adoption of emergency measures to halt the flow of illegal migrants; measures allowing us, liaising with the transit countries, to make the Mediterranean areas secure (including the global negotiation of readmission agreements); and, finally, in the longer term, ways of translating the principles of co-development into concrete action.

We agreed to step up our own consultations and those with the most concerned of our Mediterranean and African partners on these various issues, and to give ourselves the resources to move forward rapidly.

EU-MEDITERRANEAN-AFRICA GROUP/IMMIGRATION

I raised the idea of creating a select EU-Mediterranean-Africa group on immigration, in a format to be defined, with the participation of the Commission, which would be tasked with making recommendations on methods of strengthening operational cooperation.

I also restated our commitment to a balanced approach to the migrations issue, viewing it as a whole and not focusing solely on the law enforcement aspect.

Finally, I pointed out that in our view this matter should have priority in the European Union’s cooperation projects.

ENHANCED COOPERATION

We discussed ways of making the partnership more flexible and dynamic. We also talked about promoting enhanced cooperation for regional projects in the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership. I proposed that we commit ourselves more firmly to promoting this concept so that a few of us can work together, pragmatically, on concrete projects which would contribute to realizing the partnership’s goals.

There has been an initial implementation of the principle in the security and defence sphere. Other subjects would lend themselves very well to such initiatives, starting, certainly, with migrations.

EU FINANCIAL COMMITMENT/MEDITERRANEAN

We talked about the European Union’s financial commitment to help the Mediterranean area from 2007 onwards. I noted our common ambition at least to maintain the same level of financial aid for the Mediterranean partners in the forthcoming financial perspective.

EU APPROACH/MEDITERRANEAN

We also talked about the distinguishing feature of the European approach to the Mediterranean, particularly in the light of new initiatives proposed in the region.

To my mind, it’s more important than ever to maintain this balanced, progressive approach, characterized by dialogue, listening to what each other has to say, and partnership.

This also means that we have to increase our efforts to give this partnership a higher profile and make it more relevant to people through greater involvement of the civil societies, who are already very active. It’s for them, to improve their living conditions that this partnership was launched, in order to create an area of peace and stability, shared prosperity and exchange./.