The 5th High Level Meeting of the National Parliaments of the Western Mediterranean Cooperation (5+5 Dialogue), was convened in Lisbon, Portugal, on 20 May 2014, on the occasion of the 11th Meeting of the Foreign Affairs Ministers and the 2nd Economic Business Forum of the 5+5 Dialogue.
The meeting was coordinated, at the invitation of the Speaker of the Portuguese Parliament, by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM), which is responsible to service the parliamentary dimension of the 5+5 Dialogue.
National parliamentary delegations from the 5+5 Dialogue Member States, the National Council of Monaco, PAM and other invited representatives from relevant regional parliamentary institutions, including the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean, the Maghreb Consultative Council and the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union, addressed the main issues on the table from the legislative perspective, and discussed how the National Assemblies can contribute in the sectors of regional security, economic growth, climate change and the protection of victims of human trafficking and the fight against organized crime.
All participants expressed their concern on the issue of migration in the Mediterranean, its exponential increase, and the resulting loss of lives, which is becoming almost an everyday tragedy. Highlighting the 800% increase in the number of illegal migrants, in the first four months of 2014, compared to the previous year, the need for a concerted policy against organized crime and terrorist organizations, both responsible for the exploitation of migrants and asylum seekers, is a must to fight these criminal acts, and to strengthen solidarity and the principle of burden sharing among the States involved, particularly those of the European Union.
At the end of the Parliamentary Meeting, France offered to host in Marseille, in the coming months, a dedicated PAM meeting to prepare for the Paris Summit on Climate Change next year.
Furthermore, three PAM vice-Presidents, namely, H.E. Ms. Maria da Coceição Pereira (Portugal), Sen. Mokhtar Youcef (Algeria), Sen. Lhou Lmarbouh (Morocco), and PAM Secretary General, Amb. Sergio Piazzi,
also participated at the Economic Business Forum and the Foreign Affairs Ministerial Conference.
“PAM Parliaments are committed to the 5+5 Process and are determined to strengthen it further in parallel with the ministerial dimension”, PAM Secretary General told the Ministerial conference. Amb. Piazzi also announced that shortly, a visit to Libya will take place, at the request of the United Nations. PAM is committed to work with the General National Congress, a PAM member, and concurrently develop a structured platform with the Libyan Minister of Foreign Affairs, and all the other Ministers of the Western Mediterranean Dialogue (5+5), in order to strengthen the efforts aimed at reaching concrete results in the North African country.
On the economic side, PAM and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), will soon visit Tunisia to facilitate investments and the mechanisms related to the specific needs of the country. “PAM and the EBRD are cooperating on a far reaching project in the framework of the Deauville Partnership aimed at assisting four pilot countries of the MENA Region to develop further their financial and economic sectors, and their infrastructural networks”, PAM vice-President, Sen. Lhou Lmarbouh told the Ministers in his remarks on the economic activities of the Assembly.
With reference to Climate Change and Water issues, Sen. Mokhtar Youcef, recalled PAM’s efforts to address the key aspects of water management in a Mediterranean region, where this fundamental resource is extremely vulnerable to climate change.
Finally, based on the excellent experience of previous 5+5 meetings in Rome, Malta, Nouakchott, and that of Lisbon, it was suggested that in future meetings, MPs and Ministers should have the opportunity to share their respective conclusions in order to coordinate their actions and support each other’s efforts to further integrate the region and strengthen the democratic institutions, which are at the basis of a stable, secure and prosperous region.