Text tabled : A7-0133/2010

  Vito Bonsignore (PPE), in writing. – (IT) By voting in favour of the Peillon report, we have all acknowledged that the Mediterranean basin is an area of key importance, and that in a multipolar and interdependent world, large regional integrations, such as that of the Mediterranean, will be better positioned to cope with social, cultural, economic, environmental, demographic, political and security-related challenges.

The Mediterranean encompasses at once all of these challenges, which are crucial for the stability of the entire region, and which call for concerted, determined action.

At the forthcoming meeting in Barcelona, the Euro-Mediterranean Heads of State or Government will come together again to assess the progress made by the Union for the Mediterranean.

In my opinion, three political points should be considered at that time:

a) the time taken to follow up on the creation of the institutional set-up, determined in Paris, and the failure to make the most of the parliamentary dimension offered by the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly;

b) the inadequacy of the financial resources and synergies employed; while recognising the progress and significant, tangible commitments made by some of our countries, including Italy, the overall impact of the Union for the Mediterranean with regard to creating an area of economic prosperity remains weak;

c) the difficulty in decisively tackling issues such as peace, stability and security, an essential requirement in order to provide the Union for the Mediterranean with a political dimension and unity of purpose.