INTRODUCTION

Mr Tahir KÖSE, Chairman of the Special Mediterranean Group

Friday, 14 December

Ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues,

I would like to welcome you all here and to thank you for coming to the Seventh “Mediterranean Dialogue” Seminar of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies of Malta University, and particularly Prof. Dr. Felix MEIER, its Director, Dr. Stephen CALLEYA, its Deputy Director, and Ms. Jo Ann CAMILLERI, for kindly contributing to the organisation of the Seminar in Malta. As you know, it is the first time that the Special Mediterranean Group meets in Malta. Our visit thus confirms the importance that the NATO Parliamentary Assembly attaches to nurturing fruitful contacts with the Republic of Malta.

It also seems appropriate that we have chosen this location at this particular moment. The history of Malta has indeed been linked with the history of the whole Mediterranean over the centuries. Its culture is an interesting mix of Southern European, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon elements, which make it the ideal location for a seminar that brings together politicians, diplomats, academics and civil servants from Europe, the Middle East, and the Maghreb to discuss common problems and ways to address them together.

To quote the French historian Fernand Braudel, the Mediterranean is a thousand things in one. It is hard to imagine a more diverse or more pluralistic region. A crossroads of peoples, civilisations and religions, the Mediterranean seems to elude an all-coherent, all-encompassing definition.

While important initiatives have been launched to foster co-operation and help develop comprehensive arrangements for security in the region, great economic disparities and political imbalances persist between the Northern, Southern and Eastern shores of the Mediterranean. The region is currently faced with a multitude of problems and challenges: economic underdevelopment, demographic pressures, uncontrolled migration, competition for access to vital resources, arms proliferation ‑ particularly weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles ‑ to name but a few. The region remains a theatre of turmoil and of harsh regional confrontations, as the events in the Middle East are constantly reminding us.

In this context, and in the light of the tragic terrorist attacks of September 11 that now overshadow our collective security agenda, dialogue and co-operation appear all the more essential. Like the Atlantic Alliance, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly clearly recognises that security in Europe is closely linked to security and stability in the Mediterranean. And the events of September 11 have made this linkage all the more crucial. Our first session will therefore be devoted to dialogue and cooperation in the region, offering views from different sides.

With the help of our speakers, we will also try to understand the role that international organisations – and NATO in particular – could play in this new security environment. And how their activities need to be restructured to face these new threats.

The issue of terrorism will, of course, be on the agenda. The attacks on the United States have demonstrated that all of our societies, even the most sophisticated, are vulnerable to this form of aggression. Many of our societies have been the victims of terrorism, but these attacks were of a magnitude not seen before.

Around the Mediterranean ‑ and beyond ‑ the events on and since September 11 clearly demonstrate that unsolved economic and political problems contribute to sustaining the supply of “foot soldiers” for a new kind of terrorism around the world. Understanding these dynamics will certainly help make our response to international terrorism more effective.

Terrorism should not, however, monopolise our seminar. As a central element for security in the Mediterranean, the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process has suffered a very serious setback, as we all know. In July 2000, during the Camp David Summit, the two sides seemed close to a final agreement. But the massive outbreak of violence since November 2000, which has killed and wounded hundreds of people, has lead the whole Process to the brink of collapse and, in the last few weeks, to the brink of an all out war.

It thus seems necessary to devote an entire session of our Seminar to the dramatic situation in the Middle East. We have gathered officials from the Arab and Israeli sides, as well as from the European Union, hoping to find elements that might help us all rethink the foundations of the original Peace Process. I am personally convinced that there is no alternative to renewed negotiations between the two sides.

I am also confident that we, as NATO parliamentarians, can give a valuable contribution to the general stability of the region, by entertaining constant exchange of ideas with our colleagues in the South and by encouraging dialogue between the different actors. Intellectual and political confrontation in a friendly and open environment may, indeed, help find creative solutions for many a difficult problem.

For these reasons, attention will also be drawn, in a fourth session, to the issues of media, information and civil society in the Mediterranean, which are of critical importance to sustaining democracy in the region. Two of our speakers will give us an account of how the media report the security challenges in the region, highlighting in particular the role of the media as the "generator" of democratic culture.

Our final session will be devoted to migration. A question of considerable magnitude, which is taking an ever more prominent place in security debates – and which is imposing new intellectual and policy challenges on both sides of the Atlantic and on both shores of the Mediterranean.

These are some of the avenues that this Seminar proposes to explore. As you know, this promises to be both a very rich and challenging agenda. As usual, I encourage every participant, including our distinguished observers from international organisations, diplomatic missions and academic institutions, to participate actively in the debate that, we trust, will be open, useful and fruitful.

Before starting with our first session, I would like to welcome our colleagues from the South Mediterranean. Legislators from eight Mediterranean partners have come to attend this Seminar: Algeria, Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, the Palestinian National Authority and Tunisia. Thank you again for coming and I hope you all will take the opportunity to share your views during these two days.

And now, let us open the first session of the Seminar on Dialogue and Co-operation in the Mediterranean.