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Opening statement by Minister for Foreign Affairs Erkki Tuomioja of the EU Presidency at the plenary session of the Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Ministers for Foreign Affairs Tampere 28 November, 2006 Ministers, distinguished delegates, It is a pleasure to welcome you all to the 8th Euro-Mediterranean Foreign Ministers´ Conference here in Tampere. This meeting is a useful opportunity for us to take stock of the progress made during the eighteen months since our last Foreign Ministers´ meeting in Luxembourg (May 2005) and at the same time to look forward to the coming year. Let me also recall that this is the first Foreign Ministers´ meeting since the 10th anniversary Summit of the Barcelona Process, which was held in Barcelona exactly a year ago (28th November 2005), and where a new five year work programme was approved. As you all know, during the whole Finnish EU Presidency the issues of the Mediterranean region have had a very high priority, and this continues to be the case. In this Process, which gathers us together today, Finland has given high priority to carrying out the Work Programme in a balanced way and in a spirit of consultation and co-operation with all the partners. Without going too much into detail, let me recall, in particular, that we have organized three ministerial meetings in the framework of the Process: • The Industry Ministers´ Conference in Rhodes, in September; • The Ministerial Conference on Strengthening the Role of Women in Society, two weeks ago in Istanbul, and • The Ministerial Conference on Environment, a week ago in Cairo. All of these important meetings were successful, and their results, as recorded in the respective final declarations, give us new impetus and guidance for the future work in these areas. I hope that we can endorse the results of these meetings when we come to the approval of the conclusions of this Conference. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the respective host countries (Greece, Turkey and Egypt) for their excellent cooperation and for co-chairing these meetings. Work has continued at Senior Official or expert level in many other sectors of the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation. An open and frank political dialogue has been held, which is of course an integral part of our partnership and one of its main strengths - particularly when the situation in the region is tense and affects partners´ relations with each other at the more local level, as was the case, for example, during the summer. Over recent months in particular, an active discussion has been taking place on how to tackle the issue of migration in the Mediterranean area, both legal and illegal, and taking account of the close linkages between migration and economic, security and other issues. Useful work has been done on terrorism, focusing on the implementation of the Code of Conduct on Countering Terrorism, which was adopted at last year´s Summit. Also, a high level energy forum has been held where priorities for EuroMed Energy partnership have been approved. This is to mention just some examples of our active ongoing cooperation. Several new initiatives are to be prepared, like the Ministerial Conference on Higher Education and Research, which is planned for next year. It seems to me that the area in which, above all others, this process can make a difference is that of intercultural dialogue. We have all seen how the lack of understanding between communities of different cultures can lead to mutual mistrust, social tension and violence. The need for such understanding is particularly great between the Islamic and the Western worlds, but also within society in many countries, certainly within many European ones. We have, of course, already given concrete recognition to the importance of this area of work by establishing the Anna Lindh Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures. I was pleased to have the opportunity to address the Heads of National Networks of the Anna Lindh Foundation here in Tampere on Sunday evening. We should seek to support and strengthen the Foundation and ensure that its activities reach the widest possible audience, especially young people and in the spheres of education, media and civil society. In many cases, the lack of understanding between people of different cultures is due not necessarily to religious factors, but can have substantial political components. As plenty of examples both in Europe and elsewhere indicate, it is much more difficult to solve a political problem if there is a religious divide between the conflicting parties. Improving cultural and religious understanding, therefore, could have substantial benefits in the area of peace and security. Admittedly, these would not come about overnight, but I think that they are certainly an end worth working towards. For many European countries, the current level of religious and value diversity in their societies, which is only likely to increase, is something very new, and has brought some challenges. Meeting these challenges will require tolerance and adaptability on the parts of Governments and people, whether of the native or more recently-arrived populations. These issues were discussed in Istanbul, at the Annual Meeting of the EuroMed Study Committee (Euromesco) and the very successful seminar on "Inclusion within Diversity". These are all topics that must be further elaborated in the Euro-Mediterranean dialogue, in the proper context, if we want to improve the inter-cultural dialogue and understanding. Dear Ministers, We can now proceed to the debate of this Plenary session: As has been indicated, there is no "thematic agenda" as each delegation can have one intervention. I hope, however, that we will use this time to look to the future of our process and concentrate on efforts and ideas on how to make it a more efficient, more visible instrument for enhanced Euro-Mediterranean Cooperation and Partnership. Torna indietro |
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