Osservatorio mediterraneo

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Meeting of the Regional Politics and Culture Committees

Brussels, November 26^th 1996

Speech by

Michele Capasso, President of the Fondazione Laboratorio Mediterraneo

architect and engineer

As the President of the Fondazione Laboratorio Mediterraneo and an expert invited for this meeting of the Regional Politics and Culture Committees, I am particularly glad to be present at the European Parliament essentially for three reasons :

Europe has to recover the role of guide in the evolution of the world events. That will be possible only if Europe revalues the centrality of the Mediterranean, cradle of some of the most ancient civilizations.

It is essential for Europe to consider necessary, besides economic and market dimension, also cultural and spiritual dimension. In a moment in which the ideologies of this century, such as communism and capitalism, are in crisis it is very important to give birth to new identities based on the universal concepts of "beauty" and "common good", setting great store by the historical and cultural events of the ancient traditions of the Mediterranean.

Such identities can be built through a new European dimension able to revalue the separate Regions : it is necessary to built a composite mosaic exalting the characteristics of the single pieces ; yet, these "pieces" will acquire a significance only when the puzzle has been completed and the imagine built and clearly readable, without emphasising the particularisms. The only chance of building the United Europe is to exalt and revalue the specific qualities and identities of each Region.

In this process of rebuilding of the mosaic the Mediterranean has an essential role.

It represents the ground of natural joining that has to turn into the concept of "union".

Laying most of the European Regions on the Mediterranean, this sea has to become the reference also for those Regions that, without overlooking the Mediterranean, converge to it. A young and prosperous Europe has to be also Mediterranean. This is the only way on which one must work concretely.

These three aims are fundamental for the future of Europe.

If the Mediterranean is, all over the world, a unifying concept, the building of a Mediterranean Europe cannot occur by words : concrete activities as part of operative projects that value carefully time and resources available as well as possible strategies are required.

The activities of the Fondazione Laboratorio Mediterraneo are carried out in this view. They are part of pluriannual research programmes and gathered together in nine sectors: Peace within the Mediterranean to promote and quicken processes of peace ; Education and promotion of welfare to facilitate communication and overcome particularisms ; Cooperation among Regions, Provinces and Cities to establish an institutional network for the Euromediterranean cooperation; Individual and social empowerment to increase resources and foster the multiethnic communication ; Culture of the tourism to enhance the value of places, help exchanges and comparison among cultures; Defence of the environment for the protection of ecosystems ; Defence and valorization of the cultural heritage to recuperate and preserve the memories of the human history and tradition ; Art, theatre, music, dance and cinema to promote the exchange of the various ways of expression and cultures; Philosophy, history, literature to give a space and a chance of comparison to the voices of the Mediterranean.

At September 30^th 1996 the Fondazione Laboratorio Mediterraneo has carried out 195 researches organizing more than 120 events such as shows, international conferences, workshops, seminars, training courses, editing.

Each project by the Fondazione Laboratorio Mediterraneo turns into a structural intervention on a regional, national and international level. Companies already working are potentiated, new companies set, sectors and activities promoted.

Here is a list of the main areas where the Foundation is concerned :

Tourism and hotel industry

Publishing trade and printing

Multimedia activities

Research (with young researchers and collaborators still in the limbo between the degree and the world of work, having in this way the chance of present themselves to the public)

Promotion of welfare through the individuation of the new poverty and the new needs and consequent finalized canalization of the available resources, without waste.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

1 - Discussion points

The role of Europe in the world

The prerogatives of Europe

The significance of the Mediterranean

The possibilities of interaction with the UE

The projects of the UE for the socio-cultural Euromediterranean cooperation

2 - key words

Culture as the new engine of economics

Promotion of the architectural heritage and cultural fields

The role of the cities: protection and valorization of the historical heritage

The cultural parks: a new frontier of tourism, between journey and pilgrimage