MED UNION: DASTOLI, EU TO REACH GOALS WITHOUT DIVISIONS
(ANSAmed) - RENDE (COSENZA), OCTOBER 24 -
After the European Union for years privileged the integration of countries of the former Soviet Union,
"now it must aim at collaboration with the Mediterranean countries", and do so from a "united and coherent" position.
Pier Virgilio Dastoli, director of the Italian Representation of the European Commission, said this, underlining that, after not reaching the objectives of the 'Barcelona process', it has been decided to "restart today with the Union for the Mediterranean (UPM), launched in July in the summit of Paris". Dastoli reminded that in early November, in Marseille, the meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Union for the Mediterranean will deal with the institutional and operational aspects.
"An agreement will not be easy" he observed "but the possibility to get the projects going depends on it". In the relations between Europe and the southern Mediterranean countries, Dastoli sees problems like "integration of immigrants, inter-religious dialogue, the need to guarantee rights like information, freedom of expression and association, rights related to a democratic community".
He hopes that on all these aspects Europe will play "a more important role than in the past", and that most of all - as is hoped for other fields like economic and environmental emergencies as well - "it will act from a united and coherent position".(ANSAmed).
2008-10-24 17:19
Sunday, 2 November 2008
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