Rabat – Secretary-General of the Union for the Mediterranean (UFM), Fathallah Sijilmassi, said, on Sunday in Rabat, that there is a “consensus” on the need to rethink cooperation between the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean.
“There is a consensus today between north and south on the need to rethink the methodology of cooperation” between the two shores of the Mediterranean, Sijilmassi told a debate in the House of Representatives on “the UfM and the major challenges in the Mediterranean”, at the initiative of the Parliamentary Assembly of the UfM, which is holding its eighth session in the Kingdom from March 24 to 25 .
Sijilmassi urged “all the stakeholders to strengthen the regional dimension in the neighborhood policy” and to “transform the UfM into a driving force for development in the region.”
“The strength that Europe needs to lay the foundations of its international competitiveness lies in the Mediterranean region”, he said.
The opening of the session was attended by André Azoulay, advisor to HM the King and President of the Anna Lindh Foundation, Karim Ghellab, speaker of the House of Representatives, Mohamed Cheikh Biadillah, speaker of the House of Councillors, Youssef Amrani, minister delegate to the Foreign Minister, and Christian Berger, representative of the EU Chief Diplomat Catherine Ashton.
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