| Final Declaration
EUROMED CIVIL FORUM
Naples, 12 –14 December 1997
The participants to the ending Session of the II Euromed Civil
Forum, organized by the "Fondazione Laboratorio Mediterraneo"
in Naples on 12th, 13th and 14th December 1997 - which hosting 2248
representatives of the Civil Society (from economic, social, productive,
cultural and scientific sectors), of Institutions and of young people
- after a wide debate, have approved the following:
- approve the initiative which has allowed this important biannual
meeting that, as the I Euromed Civil Forum organized in 1995 in
Barcelona by the Institut Catala de la Mediterrania, aims at strengthening
the cooperation between the two Mediterranean sides to actually
meet the needs of the whole society;
- ask that the whole Mediterranean area finds the right answers
to guarantee its own development within the globalization of exchanges;
underline that the history of the Mediterranean area, apart from
economic competition and ideological and military conflicts, is
a history of cultural convergence and mutual interactions;
- condemn, in the name of this history and of the worrying current
events, any kind of intolerance and violence arising from the repression
and denial of the "Other";
invite the Euro-Mediterranean Civil Society to fight against all
ethnic and religious repression actions which lead to unjustified
violence and to the breaking up of the social dialogue;
- thank the representatives of the Institutions of the European
Union, of Member States, international Institutions, Regions and
Towns of the European Union attending at the II Euromed Civil Forum
for their support to the success of the initiative;
- hope that the representatives of the European Institutions, of
the Countries and Regions of the Euro-Mediterranean area commit
themselves to support the projects submitted to the II Euromed Civil
Forum through the procedures established by the European Commission
to relaunch the new programmes of decentralized cooperation and
suggest the following priority fields: cultural heritage, tourism,
population and gender, media and communication, environment and
climate, education;
- stress, at the present moment when Agenda 2000 is facing the problems
linked to the eastward widening of the European Union, the importance
of the next halfway Euro-Mediterranean Conference - which will take
place in Italy (Palermo) next June - hoping that the conclusions
of the II Euromed Civil Forum of Naples will be seriously taken
into account;
- recommend the Fondazione Laboratorio Mediterraneo and all the
representatives of the Civil Society - that have contributed to
the works and success of the II Euromed Civil Forum - to implement
the conclusions expressed by each session for the actual realization
of fruitful complementary actions between the two Mediterranean
sides, by setting up a permanent organization to collect and promote
the suggestions expressed by the Civil Society, offering an active
space for visibility and exchanges.
Naples, 14th December 1997
|
