mr president first of all i would like to congratulate ms napoletano on her report
certainly the union for the mediterranean is a significant step forward in the efforts for the euro-mediterranean partnership
one of the impediments to this partnership so far has been visibility the capability of the populations of the partners to acknowledge the impact of the barcelona process and our union for the mediterranean
let me give you an example
when i was asked to prepare a report on de-pollution of the mediterranean the programmes involved are the following the mediterranean hotspot investment programme the strategy for water in the mediterranean the eu marine strategy the unep map the mediterranean strategy for sustainable development the mediterranean environmental technical assistance programme the mediterranean eu water initiative and the myis which have been running under the umbrella of the horizon twenty twenty programme
this fragmentation makes visibility suffer
the other impediment is the middle east problem
i salute the position of mr solana that the quartet will this time operate in a different way to the past
this is not due to the lack of will on the part of the european union but due to the previous policy of the american administration
i hope that this time with the dispatch of mr mitchell to the area political progress will be made
we have done a lot on this issue
i visited lebanon very recently and i saw there that unifil with the presence of the european contingents makes a repeat of hostilities in southern lebanon and israel impossible
