| Editorial
Since the Barcelona Conference in
November 1995, on the occasion of the annual Ministerial Conferences
where the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the 27 EU and
Mediterranean Partnership meet to discuss the progress of the
Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, four "Civil Fora" have
been organised in Barcelona (1995), Malta (1997), Naples (1998),
Stuttgart (1999) and Marseilles (2000).
The Marseilles Civil Forum was held
between 10 and 12 of November 2000, few days prior to the IVth
Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference. Although in all the
previous civil fora representatives of most civil groups had
participated, the Marseilles NGO Civil Forum for the first time,
brought together representatives from NGOs working on culture,
youth, human rights, peace, democracy, social affairs, environment
and development. Furthermore, trade unions and local authorities
held parallel meetings and in the end a joint Plenary was organised,
with the active participation of the French Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. The peace issue, the gender and human rights issues and the
disputes in the Middle East dominated, to a large extent, the Forum.
One of the obvious objectives of the
environmental NGOs throughout the Forum was the inclusion of the
Environment not as yet another issue on the agenda but as the vital
sustainability pre-condition for sound social and economic
development. This was clearly communicated to the Plenary through
"the Marseilles Declaration of Environmental
Organisations".
Indeed the Environment was introduced
in several ways and parts of the final message of the Forum to the
Ministers and was reflected also in the Ministerial Declaration.
Taking into account the relative
balances among the various groups, the environmental NGO input
should be considered as a success. However, if we take some distance
from the events we see rather few new elements introduced and if we
consider the actual effect of these statements to the national
policies and their implementation one has the feeling that the Civil
Fora demonstrate the big gap between intentions and actual
circumstances.
M. Scoullos
MIO-ECSDE Chairman
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