Press release of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
Monte Carlo/Geneva, 2 July 1997
N° 1

EMPLOYMENT POLICIES AT HEART OF IPU MONACO MEETING ON MEDITERRANEAN SECURITY & CO-OPERATION

At the invitation of the National Council of Monaco, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) - the world organization of parliaments - will hold a specialised meeting on 3-4 July 1997, on ways to further co-operation on employment policies in the Mediterranean region.

The theme of the two-day meeting is:

"Adjustment of national employment policies and strengthening of international co-operation on such policies in the Mediterranean, with a view to development which generates jobs as a way of strengthening regional stability".

The meeting, taking place in the Hotel Métropole Palace, in Monte Carlo, will bring together the representatives of the national parliaments that are part of the IPU's CSCM process to promote security and co-operation in the Mediterranean- essentially, the Mediterranean basin countries and those with a particular involvement in the region. The Monte Carlo meeting is also the first thematic meeting in preparation for the IIIrd Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Security and Co-operation in the Mediterranean (IIIrd CSCM), which will take place in early 1999 in Tunis.

An opening ceremony will take place on Thursday 3 July, at 2.30 p.m. in the Salon Edouard VII, on the 9^th floor of the Hotel Métropole Palace, during which the President of the Monacan Group of the IPU, Mr Alain Michel, who will chair the meeting, and the IPU Secretary General, Mr Pierre Cornillon, will take the floor. The working session will follow the ceremony, at 3 p.m., also in the Salon Edouard VII, continuing through the close of the meeting at around 6 p.m. on Friday 4 July. There will be an oral summing-up of the debates just before the end.

An expert on the southern shore, Dr Bichara Khader, Professor at Louvain University's Centre for Study and Research on the Contemporary Arab World, will make a contribution to the meeting on Demographic Evolution, Employment Creation and International Co-operation in the Mediterranean. Contributions are also expected from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and European Union (EU).

Security and co-operation in the Mediterranean is a key concern for the IPU. Inspired by the successful Inter-Parliamentary CSCE process, which it carried out from 1973 to 1991, the IPU took upon itself to initiate a similar process to respond to the specific problems and challenges existing in the Mediterranean region. In 1992, it organised a Ist Inter-Parliamentary CSCM, in Malaga, Spain, which laid out a series of common values and principles to govern intra-Mediterranean relations. In 1995, a IInd CSCM took place, in Valletta, Malta, and called for a gradual institutionalization of the process.

The IPU's CSCM activity has become a permanent process which deals with the many CSCM issues in three "Baskets": I - Political and Security-related Co-operation: Regional Stability; II - Economic Co-operation: Co-development and Partnership; and III - Dialogue among Civilisations and Human Rights.

According to the IPU Secretary General, Pierre Cornillon, "the Monte Carlo meeting is part of the general dynamic of the IPU's CSCM process. The process aims at fostering for the Mediterranean a genuine comprehensive project underlaid by a sense of communal interest, backed up by human and financial resources.

"It is essential that all the Mediterranean partners, without exception, become involved in such a project on an equal footing, thus making it possible for all Mediterraneans to draft a Mediterranean policy tailored to the specific characteristics and needs of the region."

The IPU, which currently has 138 member-parliaments, is the focal point for world-wide parliamentary dialogue on all issues of international concern.

All accredited media representatives are invited to an press briefing on Wednesday 2 July, at 11.30 a.m., in the Hotel Métropole Palace.