MALTESE PARLIAMENTARIANS ATTEND THE SECOND EURO-MEDITERRANEAN PARLIAMENTARY FORUM IN BRUSSELS

The Hon. Anton Tabone, Speaker of the House of Representatives, accompanied by the Hon. Leo Brincat, the Hon. Victor Galea Pace, the Hon. Jose' Herrera and the Hon. Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, will be attending the Second Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Forum to be held in Brussels on the 8^th and 9^th February, 2001.

The Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Forum, which is being organised by the European Parliament, will bring together 90 parliamentarians from the twelve Mediterranean countries party to the Barcelona Declaration; 45 representatives from the fifteen EU national Parliaments and 45 members of the European Parliament. As mandated by the Barcelona Declaration, the European Parliament is organising the Euro-Mediterranean Forum in cooperation with the Parliaments of the countries participating in the process.

The Euro-Mediterranean political dialogue is one of the principal instruments of the Barcelona process, the aim of which is to promote peace, stability and development in the region. The parliamentary dimension of this political dialogue has a very special role to play in the institutional framework of relations among the members of the European Union and the Mediterranean partners.

The forum which will be jointly presided over by the President of the European Parliament, Mrs Nicole Fontaine, and the President of the Chamber of Representatives of the Kingdom of Morocco, Mr Abdelwahad Radi, will be addressed by Commissioner Patten and by a representative of the Council Presidency.

A discussion on the new Common Strategy on the Mediterranean region adopted at the Feira European Council on 19 June 2000, will ensue. There will also be an exchange of views on reinvigorating the three strands of the Barcelona Process:

political and security partnership;

economic and financial partnership: Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreements and establishment of a free-trade area; and

partnership in social, cultural and human affairs.