| MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS FINLAND Liisa Valjento EURO-MED INFORMATION
AND TRAINING SEMINAR FOR DIPLOMATS,
The Barcelona Process presents a challenge to the European Union with its wide scope and ambitious objectives. The start of the Process at the Barcelona Conference meant a qualitative and quantitative change in Euro-Mediterranean relations when both sides committed themselves to this extensive process and work programme. Finland having assumed now the Presidency takes this challenge very seriously and is determined to make this Partnership a success. Even if Finland is situated geographically far away from the Mediterranean, the border of the European Union is our common border and we are convinced of the need to cooperate with our neighbours beyond it everywhere. The Stuttgart Ministerial Conference in April demonstrated the evolving character of the Barcelona Process and it has, in fact, developed further and strengthened considerably. The Conference was a success confirming the goals set already in Barcelona. We have to continue our work in a balanced way in all three dimensions of the Barcelona Declaration to attain the objective of peace, stability and prosperity. Reaching this objective is a long-term process which sometimes takes its time to show concrete results but these first four years have proved that the process is gaining more added value. We hope to be able to do our share in consolidating the Partnership during our Presidency. To evaluate the success of the Partnership one should take into account a more general political climate. The Middle East Peace Process, as a parallel track, has affected the developments also in the Barcelona Process. But at the same time we hope that successful steps taken in the Peace Process will have positive repercussions in our work as well. We would like to see the two processes as complementary, both of them having as a target peace and stability.
The conclusions adopted in Stuttgart have, to a large extent, set the agenda for us during this autumn. The most significant initiative of the Political and Security Partnership at the moment is the Euro-Mediterranean Charter for Peace and Stability. The ministers adopted the Guidelines of the Charter as an informal document and charged us to continue from that basis. The Guidelines give a good foundation for the Charter but a lot of work remains to be done. The Charter should be adopted at the Barcelona IV Conference so we have to work intensively to reach this target. Finland will organize two ad hoc meetings dedicated to the charter and we hope to be able to hand the Charter project over to our Portuguese colleagues as the next Presidency in a more advanced stage at the end of this year. The Charter, in our view, must be an instrument of political cooperation in order to implement the Barcelona Declaration. But we have to keep in mind that the ministers adopted a comprehensive and balanced approach which means that all elements, including the economic and socials factors, need to be taken into account when they affect peace and stability. The political cooperation has not yet gained as much substance as it should have so we hope that the Charter will provide a forum for enhanced political dialogue. In the political chapter, the Declaration includes different elements in the field of traditional hard security, such as disarmament, but we have on the agenda also other kind of issues. Different global challenges to security such as terrorism, organised crime, drugs and human trafficking and illegal immigration touch all of us because they do not know any borders. That is why we must join our resources to react to them. I would also like to mention different components of the human dimension that are central elements under the concept of the comprehensive security. Respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law are prerequisites for sustainable peace and stability. The Stuttgart conclusions call for an enhanced political dialogue as well as the evolutionary and progressive development of partnership-building measures, good-neighbourly relations, regional cooperation and preventive diplomacy. We need to continue discussion on these themes to find ways to translate them into practical cooperation. The enhanced political dialogue must have a proper institutional framework. At the moment we have the ministerial meetings and the Senior Officials committee, but we have to determine what kind of requirements the enhanced political dialogue sets for the institutional framework. We should also take into account the other initiatives and organisations in the Mediterranean region. The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership should define its role in relation to them for better coordination and for avoiding duplication of activities. We should concentrate our efforts to develop new partnership-building measures to gradually increase mutual confidence. These seminars in Malta belong to the most successful ones already in existence. They have during years proved to be useful sources of information and they have also given the opportunity to meet colleagues from partner countries. Another partnership-building measure functioning at the moment is the EuroMesco network of foreign policy institutes which offer valuable academic expertise in the Euro-Mediterranean area. I think we should try to see how cooperation between the Senior Officials and the EuroMesco could be more useful and productive. The EuroMesco is publishing studies which will certainly be of help for the Senior Officials in trying to build up the Partnership. The ministers in Stuttgart urged us to continue cooperation in the field of terrorism. We are all aware that terrorism is one of the growing concerns to international security and peace. Next week we are going to have the third ad hoc meeting to tackle this issue. We consider cooperation in this field very important and we trust that this meeting will take some practical steps towards the common goal of combating terrorism. As far as the economic cooperation is concerned, we have set the target of the year 2010 for establishing the Euro-Mediterranean free trade area. The association agreement between the EU and Tunisia is already in force and we hope to be able to conclude those negotiations that are still open as soon as possible. The association agreements form an important instrument for bilateral cooperation between the two parties, parallel to the multilateral work programme. The EU and the Southern Mediterranean countries are already major trading partners but the association agreements will hopefully give an additional boost to both trade and other kind of economic cooperation and they will include dialogue on a wide range of items. It is important to deepen economic links between the EU and the Mediterranean countries but the free trade area will not be completed without similar arrangements among the Mediterranean partners. We welcome those arrangements and agreements already in place. Economic growth and prosperity call for open economies and markets. The EU is committed to continue supporting the Southern Mediterranean countries' economic and social processes through the MEDA financing. We are aware of the need of the Mediterranean countries for private investments that would give an impetus to economic activity and transition. Investors look for political stability in the markets where they plan to go. We hope that the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership will contribute towards creating a proper environment for promoting investments. In fact, there will an investment conference taking place next spring. During the Finnish Presidency there are two ministerial meetings on very important subjects. The first one on local water management was already held in Turin in October and it adopted an Action Plan on strengthening cooperation in this field. The second meeting is of health ministers in Montpellier in December which will be the first ministerial meeting of the Barcelona Process in the health sector. Talking about Finnish priorities protection of the environment remains close to our hearts. We are also inspired by the notion of two seas: the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. The question is how we could share our experiences for mutual benefit. Our contribution was the conference of ministers on the environment in Helsinki in 1997 which adopted the Short and Medium Term Priority Environmental Action Plan. We are now arranging two seminars for environmental journalists as a continuation to this Conference. The third chapter of the Barcelona Declaration covers a wide range of important issues to be dealt with. One cannot speak of a Partnership without increasing mutual understanding of other cultures and civilisations. It is important to involve the civil society in the process which will also enhance the visibility of the Process. This chapter is especially important because it aims at improving people's social conditions and therefore touches most directly upon their daily lives. We are glad that also the position of the women is being discussed in the framework of various initiatives of the Process and a youth conference was organised recently here in Malta. The youth is the future. We should adopt a more systematic approach to gain long-term effects with our Partnership. We would like to stress the need for setting priorities and focusing the regional cooperation on those areas which were agreed on at the meeting in Valencia. Regional cooperation is of crucial importance and we should see how we could further improve its efficiency. We should streamline the procedures for adoption of projects and discuss the role of the EuroMed Committee. The new MEDA II Regulation is already under discussion in the EU. We have now several years of experience of financial cooperation. We should improve it on the basis of evaluation of past activities and focus it on those areas that will best contribute towards the target of shared prosperity. The financial cooperation during the years 2000-2006 will certainly again reflect the high priority given by the EU to the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation. The high priority of this area is also reflected in the fact that the EU is elaborating a common strategy for the Mediterranean as it is for some other priority areas. This is an internal exercise of the EU which will hopefully make the EU's approach to the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation in the future more |