"Mediterranean politics and institutions" will be the theme of the "Festival of Mediterranean peoples", which the city of Bisceglie, Italy, will host from 21st to 28th July. Eight days of meetings, debates and shows to bring together the representatives of the European, North African and Middle Eastern countries that open onto the Mediterranean Sea. The opening forum on 21st July will address the issue of the role of cooperation between the European Union and the other Mediterranean countries, considered "an extraordinary ocean of opportunities". But it will also focus, explain the promoters, on "some dark points that the process started by the 1995 Barcelona Conference failed to solve". In addition, the conference will speak of the economic impact of the Euro-Med free-trade area, planned for 2010, and security. Speakers will include European MEPs and the director of the Italian Representation of the European Commission to Italy, Pier Virgilio Dastoli.
