Source: EURLEX
Language: en
Format: md

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# 91997E3817

**WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3817/97 by María IZQUIERDO ROJO to the Commission. Institute for Research on Mediterranean and Euro-Arab Cooperation** 
  
*Official Journal C 174 , 08/06/1998 P. 0135*

  

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3817/97 by María Izquierdo Rojo (PSE) to the Commission (28 November 1997)

Subject: Institute for Research on Mediterranean and Euro-Arab Cooperation

Heading A-3059 of the 1998 General Budget refers to the Institute for Research on Mediterranean and Euro-Arab Cooperation, as well as adopted Amendment 789.

The exact location of this centre is not specified in the texts made available to Members nor in the justification incorporated into the amendment concerned. Therefore, could the European Commission tell us where this Research Institute for Mediterranean and Euro-Arab Cooperation is situated?

What activites did it carry out during the period 1996-1997?

Which programmes were carried out as an extension of the Barcelona Conference?

What interparliamentary meetings had it organized?

Answer given by Mr Marín on behalf of the Commission (15 January 1998)

The European Institute for Research on Mediterranean and Euro-Arab Cooperation (MEDEA) is located in Brussels (21, rue de la Tourelle, Bruxelles 1040) and has been in operation since April 1996.

In 1996 and 1997, after the Barcelona Conference its main activities were setting up a social, economic and political database on the Mediterranean and Arab regions, which can be accessed on Internet and is also available on paper (there are already 280 files in English and French), establishing an Internet bulletin board (Medeatrade) to facilitate contact between European and Mediterranean businesses, organising meetings and parliamentary visits to improve relations between the Community and certain Arab countries, priority being given to the Mediterranean region, and providing organisational support for the Parliamentary Association for Euro-Arab Cooperation.

Two conferences were held between European and Arab members of parliament, one in Amman from 29 November to 1 December 1996 and one in Valetta on 8 and 9 November 1997. The Dubai Conference on cooperation for the peace process, held on 3 to 5 April 1997 at the initiative of the Community and the League of Arab States, was attended by about a hundred experts, businessmen, diplomats, members of parliament, European and Arab officials and the Union's Special Envoy for the peace process, Mr Moratinos.

From 10 to 14 October 1997 MEDEA and the Omani Diplomatic Institute organised a series of conferences for Omani diplomats on the following subjects: the role of Europe in resolving regional conflicts; the challenges of the twenty-first century for Europe; Europe and the problem of water in the Middle East; the Community and the peace process in the Middle East; Europe and the new world order. On 1 July 1996 MEDEA attended the seminar, held in Paris at the 'commissariat du plan', on the globalisation of the economy and regionalisation in the European-Mediterranean area. Together with Prince Hassan, on the latter's initiative, it organised and participated in the 'Conference on Islamophobia' in Amman on 7 and 8 June 1997, and contacts were established with a number of Egyptian, Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian research centres, with a view to developing joint activities and publications.

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