A Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean high level delegation, led by PAM Vice President, Sen. Francesco Maria Amoruso (Italy), took part at the Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), held on 28 November, 2011, in Paris, France. The PAM delegation consisted also of Sen. Lhou Lmarbouh (Morocco), and PAM Secretary General, Dr. Sergio Piazzi.
‘Food security is very high on the agenda of the PAM Bureau, which has decided to dedicate the necessary resources to tackle the issue in the Mediterranean region’, said Sen. Amoruso, adding that ‘Accessibility to food supplies and speculation on food prices are two factors that have triggered the discontent among the populations of the Southern Mediterranean’.
‘PAM is truly concerned and to this effect the Assembly has dedicated a special Sectoral Group on Food Security within the framework of the PAM Panel on External Trade and Investments in the Mediterranean’, said PAM Secretary General, Dr. Sergio Piazzi. He also reminded that in order to provide a more detailed picture of the situation, the Assembly had invited the Assistant Director General of FAO, Mr. Laurent Thomas, to address the VI PAM Plenary Session, held in Palermo last October. On that occasion,Mr. Thomas expressed FAO’s appreciation to the efforts of PAM to improve understanding, cooperation and the development of democracy and social justice across the Mediterranean. ‘The ingredients needed for achieving the vision of a world without hunger’, Mr. Thomas added.
PAM and FAO are currently defining a Memorandum of Understanding for a more collaborative, qualified and competent approach to these issues in the near future. ‘The objective is to work towards the achievement of food self-sufficiency in all the countries of the region, and this goal can surely benefit from the exchange of national experiences in order, inter alia, to have in place a more efficient control mechanism on speculation’, Dr. Piazzi concluded.
Sen. Lhou Lmarbouh (Morocco), PAM Energy Rapporteur, had earlier addressed the Round Table on Energy matters of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, held in Alfortville, France (27 November, 2011). Sen. Lmarbouh highlighted the main PAM activities in the Energy sector and recalled the recent high level Conference held in Naples, during which the Association of the Mediterranean Transport System Operators (METSO) was officially launched.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, through its Energy group, within the PAM Panel on External Trade and Investments in the Mediterranean, has taken a leading regional role, in gathering the major stakeholders of the energy sector, in order to facilitate the consolidation of a stable, harmonized regulation plan that can guarantee a sustainable development in all the Mediterranean countries.
PAM and PACE have agreed to work closely on these topics, which are critical to security and progress in the wider Euro-Mediterranean region, from Rabat to Vladivostok. Morocco will host the next session of the PAM Panel Sectoral Group on Energy in March 2012, which will be held at the futuristic solar energy project site in Ouarzazate, at which PACE delegates will be invited to attend.