The Committee of High Officials of the Union for the Mediterranean...

On Thursday, 4 March 2010, the inauguration of the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean was held. It was attended by the ministers of foreign affairs of the co-chairing countries Bernard Kouchner from France and Ahmed Aboul Gheit from Egypt, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain as the host of the Secretariat and the country currently presiding over the European Union Miguel Angel Moratinos, Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Judeh, Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle, the Arabian League Secretary General Amra Mousse, High Representative of the UN Alliance of Civilisations Jorge Sampaio, President of the Government of Catalonia Jose Montilla, and Mayor of Barcelona Jordi Hereue.

Apart from this, from 4 to 7 March Barcelona will host Forum 2010 in the organisation of the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for Dialogue Between Cultures, which is a meeting of the countries members of the Union for the Mediterranean gathering more than 950 participants from the civil society. During the four days, the possibilities to enhance cooperation in the Euro-Mediterranean area were discussed in plenary sessions and in more than 40 theme workshops with participation of the representatives of the civil society and public institutions.

The Union for the Mediterranean is a multilateral framework for the cooperation of the European Union and the Mediterranean countries, which is an institutional continuation of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, which is more commonly known as the Barcelona Process. It was launched in 1995 at the Euro-Mediterranean conference in Barcelona, at the initiative of the then 15 EU Member States and ten South Mediterranean countries, and the goal of Euro-Mediterranean Partnership is to strengthen the cooperation, dialogue and regional integration in the Mediterranean.

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