Euro-Mediterranean Partnership & Water

The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (the so-called Barcelona Process), launched by the Barcelona Declaration of November 1995, embraces a vast programme of collaboration in a variety of spheres – economic and financial co-operation in particular – and indicates the priority actions for developing Euro-Mediterranean co-operation.

Based on the principles of the Rome Charter (1992), a specific chapter of the Declaration is dedicated to water.  Before the Barcelona conference, two major Mediterranean water conferences were held:

• The first Mediterranean Water Conference in Algiers in 1990.

• A second conference in Rome on 1992-10-28/30, saw the drawing-up of the Mediterranean Charter for Water.

The turning point came at the first Euromed Foreign Ministers Conference in Barcelona on 1995-11-27&28.
The Barcelona Declaration defined three partnerships:

• Political & security: "securing peace and stability"
• Economic & financial: "establishing an area of shared prosperity"
• Social, cultural & human: "promoting mutual understanding by exchanges of experiences between civil societies and the development of social and cultural cooperation"

The partners have thereby set the stage for the establishment of a Free Trade Zone by the year 2010.

The economic and financial section of the Barcelona Work Programme was divided into the following 13 chapters, including water:

• Agriculture
• Energy
• Environment
• EuroMediterranean Free Trade Area
• Fisheries
• Industry
• Investment
• Regional planning
• Science & technology
• Telecommunications and information technology
• Tourism
• Transport
• Water: (abstract from the Barcelona work programme, 1995)
  "The Mediterranean Water Charter was adopted in Rome in 1992. Water is a priority issue for all the Mediterranean partners and will gain in importance as water scarcity becomes more pressing. The purpose of cooperation in this area will be as follows:
  - to take stock of the situation taking into account current and future needs;
  - to identify ways of reinforcing regional cooperation;
  - to make proposals for rationalising the planning and management of water resources, where appropriate on a joint basis;
  - to contribute towards the creation of new sources of water".
  
  Following the turning point at Barcelona, came a number of Euro-Mediterranean conferences addressing water management (see "key dates" for texts):
  
  •    Marseille, 1996-11-25&26. Euro-Mediterranean Conference on Water Management.   
  
  •    Malta 1997-04-16. 2nd Euromed Foreign Ministers Conference.
  
  •    Helsinki 1997-11-28. Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on the environment.
  
  •    Napoli 1997-12-09&10. Euro-Mediterranean Conference of 27 General Directors of Water Management.
  
  •    Palermo 1998-06-03&04.  Euromed ad-hoc ministerial meeting.
  
  •    Stuttgart 1999-04-15&16. 3rd Euromed Foreign Ministers Conference.
  
  •    Torino 1999-10-18&19. Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on Local Water management. Declaration.
  
  •    Marseille 2000-11-15&16.  4th Euromed Foreign Ministers Conference.
  
  •    Madrid  2001-11-12.  Conference of the 35 Euro-Mediterranean Water Directors.
  
  •    Barcelone 2005-11-27/28.  10th Anniversary Summit of the Euro-Med Partnership.
  
  •    Rome 2005-11-24/25.  Conference of the 35 Euro-Mediterranean Water Directors
  
  
  
  
  

	ENPI
	Key dates
	The MEDA programme
	10e anniversaire du Partenariat Euro-Med, Barcelone 2005
	10th Anniversary summit of the Euro-Med Partnership, Barcelona 2005
	Information seminar to the Water Directors of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, Madrid 2001 (resolutions)
	Résolutions de Madrid, 2001
	4e Conférence Ministerielle Euro-Méditerranéenne sur la gestion de l'eau, Marseille 2000 (conclusions)
	4th Euromed Foreign Ministers Conference, Conclusions, Marseilles 2000
	3ème Conférence Euro-Méditerranéenne des Ministres des Affaires étrangères, Stuttgart 1999
	Conclusions of the 3rd Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Foreign Ministers in Stuttgart, 1999
	Concluding statement, Palermo 1998
	Conclusions at Malta, 1997
	-27-28-1995 Item only translated in Arabic
	The Barcelona Declaration, 1995
	The Barcelona work programme, 1995