The foreign ministers of the Mediterranean EU member states voiced their support for the creation of a Mediterranean Union at a two-day meeting concluded in Paphos, southwestern Cyprus, on Friday.
"We reaffirmed our support to all efforts which have as an objective the strengthening of the cooperation between European and Mediterranean countries and reiterated the importance of the Mediterranean region for the security, stability and prosperity of the European Union," Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis ministers told a press conference.
In this context, the Mediterranean EU member states, also called "Olive Group", expressed their support for the creation of a union for the Mediterranean.
Such a proposal was first put forward by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The Mediterranean Union will consist of southern European, Middle Eastern and North African countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea.
Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco are expected to be included in this group.
Sarkozy has expressed that the Mediterranean Union could act as a bridge between Europe and Muslim world.
The Mediterranean EU states' foreign ministers said Friday in a concluding statement that they envisaged this union as a project-based mechanism, founded on the principle of equality of States.
But they added that it would, in no way, interfere or substitute the accession prospects of the candidate countries, clearly referring to Turkey.
They decided to further discuss the proposal, in order to take it forward, ahead of the next EU summit to be held in Paris in July.
On Kosovo, the ministers reiterated the leading role of the EU and the need to maintain an "EU unified position."
Foreign ministers and senior officials from Slovenia, Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Malta, Bulgaria, Romania, France and Cyprus participated in the fifth informal meeting in Paphos.
During the two-day event, they also discussed other issues such as Kosovo, Lebanon, Middle East peace process, illegal immigration and natural disaster response mechanism.
Source: Xinhua
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