Malta calls for restructuring of the Euro-Med Process

During a seminar held last month, organized by the Institut Catala` de la Mediterrania in which ideas to relaunch the Barcelona process were discussed, the Maltese representative, Alfred Zarb, outlined the position of the Malta Government and called for the Barcelona Committee to review the mechanism employed since the first Ministerial meeting of the Euro-Med Process in 1995. Such a review and restructuring would serve the purpose of increasing the sense of ownership of the process among the 27 members of the Euro-Med Process.

Malta proposed that the restructuring process could be launched with the introduction of co-chairing of meetings of the Euro-Mediterranean Process. Currently Ministerial Meetings are held regularly in European cities: Malta urged that the venue for such meetings should alternate between European and Mediterranean cities, thereby adding much needed visibility to the process. In order to speed up the work for the realisation of projects, experts could be engaged from the Mediterranean partner countries to work on short-term contracts alongside European Union officials. Members of the Process should be given the opportunity to participate at every stage of the process, that is, at the conceptual level, at the elaboration stage and during the realisation of initiatives and projects.

Malta enjoys the support of several delegations in particular its partners in the Mediterranean Forum, when these ideas were presented.