Delegates from the Member States of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean were in
Cairo from 1-2 April within the framework of the meetings of the Special Task Forces on Small and
Medium-Sized Enterprises and Organized Crime and of the Ad Hoc Committee on Energy. The
event was hosted by the Egyptian People’s Assembly, and the delegates were welcomed by PAM MP,
Hon. Mohamed Abou El-Enein of Egypt, Head of the Egyptian delegation to PAM, who is also
Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Energy.
Under the leadership of Jordan (Chair of the 2nd Standing Committee) and of Portugal (Chair of the
1st Standing Committee), the three rapporteurs (Egypt, Tunisia and Italy) briefed their colleagues on
the development of their respective reports and resolutions. The MPs were also addressed by a
number of notable guest speakers, who shared their professional experiences on the three main
topics of discussion. These included: Dr. Hafez El-Salmawy, Chair of the MEDREG Ad Hoc Group
on Electricity and Managing Director of EGYPTERA, Mr. James Rawley, United Nations Resident
Coordinator based in Cairo, a representative of the Social Fund for Development (Egypt), Mr.
Michel Gonnet, Chairman of Financière OCEOR and Chairman of the Steering Committee of the
Euro-Mediterranean Group of Banks (France) and Mr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the
Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities.. Fruitful debates followed and additional contributions
were put forth in order to reach agreed final documents which represent the views of all PAM
members.
This was the last series of STF and Ad Hoc Committee meetings before the PAM Bureau Middle
East mission to take place in May following which the three PAM Standing Committees will
convene in Lisbon (Portugal) to endorse the draft reports and resolutions prepared by all PAM
technical meetings ahead of the Plenary Session in Istanbul in October.