A sea of dialogue” “

“It would be a grave error to build the new Europe by ignoring the ‘cradle of Europe’, i.e. the Mediterranean”: so said Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission, in a speech given in Italy on 19 May . “Enlargement and unification of Europe – said Prodi – require a new reflection and strong political action to promote coexistence and cooperation between different peoples and cultures and reinforce our strategy towards the regions closest to Europe. Among these, the Mediterranean is a priority“, even though many problems needs to be tackled, including: “the protracted conflicts that have long divided the Mediterranean (in particular, though not exclusively, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict), the need to organize the new political and historical phase in Iraq and in the region, and the need to find an effective common approach between Europeans and peoples of the Mediterranean”. In any case, according to the President of the European Commission, this area “cannot be considered just a question of security or a frontier region. Such an approach is short-sighted, because it does not take into account the human, social and historical processes taking place in the Euromediterrean area, and is ineffective because it fails to tackle the various root causes of the problems”. “Our proposal – Romano Prodi continued – is to turn the Mediterranean into a great area of cooperation and integration, in which to establish special relations in the context of a wider neighbourhood policy”. For “we cannot enlarge the Union ad infinitum and must stabilize the European institutional and political construction round a determined number of countries: the new member countries, the candidate countries and the Balkans”. But at the same time “we must propose to our partners in the Mediterranean a policy that may open new prospects (through a genuine ‘common agenda’), provide indispensable incentives to pursue difficult processes of internal reform, and offer new and more flexible instruments of cooperation, adapted to the various national and regional situations”. “Of course – said Prodi – we don’t start from zero. The Barcelona Process represents the first and, for the time being, the only attempt at a structured and multilateral form of Euromediterranean cooperation. This process needs however to be reinforced; the new strategy insists still more on the idea of co-belonging. Two specific proposals in this sense are the Euromediterranean Bank and the Foundation for dialogue between cultures“. “The first – explained Prodi – may contribute an added value to what is already being done in the area not only in quantitative economic terms but also, and especially, in qualitative political terms. The second will be aimed at promoting intellectual and cultural exchanges, animating an ongoing cultural debate through television, radio, periodicals and internet, and sponsoring major cultural events. It’s essential to put the emphasis on learning diversity and accepting others, especially among the young”. With regard to Iraq and the Middle East, Prodi observed that: “The European Union is in a unique position and has all the resources it needs to act in the area. We must insist that the ‘road map’ for peace in Israel obtains the declared and determined support of all the parties in the conflict. As far as Iraq is concerned, what’s needed most is not material, but moral reconstruction. That’s why the Iraqi people and the United Nations must assume a central role”. “A new multilateral legitimization – he concluded – could really alleviate the tensions and fears of the Iraqi people and lay the foundations for a new political phase throughout the region to the east of the Jordan”.