The President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM), H.E. Hon. Pedro Roque (Portugal) was among the keynote speakers at the Plenary Session of the Fourth SEECP Parliamentary Assembly, held on 8-10 June 2017, in Zagreb, Croatia.
The SEECP (South East Cooperation Process) PA’s primary goal is to strengthen the cooperation and to mainstream the efforts of the parliaments of all the participating countries so as to advance and further ensure peace, security, stability, solidarity and neighbourly cooperation in the region to the benefit of its citizens and of Europe in general.
President Roque said that in the present regional context, PAM’s main purpose is to promote international parliamentary dialogue to achieve stable and sustainable political, social, economic and cultural conditions, and in this regard, cooperation is crucial.
Hon. Roque recalled that the two organizations share many member countries. Last February, at the PAM 11th Plenary Session held in Porto, Portugal, Romania became a PAM full member. Currently, out of 14 SEECP PA members, 11 are also PAM members. “Therefore it is easy to understand that we face the same issues, and that we have the obligation to cooperate and join efforts with sub-regional initiatives such as the SEECP”, Hon. Roque added.
The challenges that are being faced are strictly interconnected to each other. Therefore, the action of the two organisations must address, at the same time, all these problems if one wants to positively impact on the stability and on the well-being of the populations represented.
For example PAM actively follows the Climate Change negotiations within the works of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. On this, PAM is organizing a regional meeting, the Parliamentary MEDCOP, on the role of parliamentarians in fighting climate change, to be held in Ouarzazate, Morocco, next October.
PAM is also very keen in supporting economic growth and job creation in the region, particularly the MENA area. This is necessary to counter violent extremism and radicalization. To achieve this, the Assembly decided to strengthen further its ties with the major international financial institutions in order to benefit from their expertise and to get first-hand information on the requirements of the region to get easier access to foreign investments for both national critical infrastructures and SMEs, which are the engine of the Mediterranean economy.
“As you can see, there is no time for complacency. We must join our efforts to deal with such scenarios, we need to anticipate trends, to mitigate effects and promote initiatives at the global level”, the PAM President concluded.