(ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, 10 MAY - After the Arab Spring
revolutions, the European Union must push on the accelerator of
a project for a Euro-Mediterranean free-trade area. The
European Parliament reiterates its challenge in a report adopted
today by a vast majority (479 in favour, 64 against, 40
abstentions). ''The European Parliament", the President of the
European Parliament Martin Schulz commented, " will ensure that
all business and foreign affair interests of the EU move forward
hand in hand with the basic values of human rights, democracy
and a free society." Schulz is the President in office of the
Union for the Mediterranean's parliamentary assembly and
emphasized that this report is ''the final evidence of
consistency and genuine commitment by the European Parliament to
strengthen the cooperation between both sides of the
Mediterranean." According to the report's rapporteur, Niccolo'
Rinaldi (Idv), ''the economic and social deterioration" in the
Arab Spring countries "might affect their first steps topwards
democracy", that is why it is necessary to translate the EU's
commitment into "free-trade agreements with the pioneers,
especially Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco." According to the
EU MPs, the European Union should also work on concrete actions
for local SMEs, with the help of European financial institutions
and the EIB, but also thanks to the "issuing of visas for
students and entrepreneurs", Rinaldi concluded.(ANSAmed)
