Euromed Forum, Valencia, (12-14 April 2002)

The Euromed Forum has existed since 1995. It was created through the initiative of the E.U. Commission as part of the official policy to listen to civil society. It is held every year prior to the meeting of the ministries of the Euromed Council.
Still part of the official frame, it has been joined by some organizations more critical of the E.U. policy.
Therefore this forum may seem quite bizarre in that there are chic hotels, all travel and hotel expenses are paid whilst the content is extremely critical.

400 people took part this year in the forum; 80-90% of them was European, half the Europeans were people from Valencia. Because of current events, Palestinians were very many presents among the small minority of the non-Europeans.

The forum expressed a very strong and moving support to the resistance struggle of the Palestinian people. The first full session was devoted entirely to this question. A final resolution has been produced.

I represented the Euromarches in the working group about casual work and social exclusion; about 12 people took part in it; only 2 Moroccans represented the non-EU part of the Mediterranean zone. Despite this, the exchange of information and the resolution produced were very good and interesting. The prospect of the coming Seville March raised a lot of interest. Since there were too few non-EU participants, we could not develop further links between the two Mediterranean sides.
I made contact with some Moroccan and Algerian friends outside the working group. I hope these links can be developed as well as strong solidarity between movements and organizations from South and East Mediterranean countries fighting against the unemployment and the misery which affect their people so badly. The appalling situation they are faced with mainly comes from the building between the E.U. and these countries' governments of a real Euro-Mediterranean ALENA. One aspect of this ALENA is the policies of immigration we know well.
Within the fight against capitalistic globalization these issues must be addressed.

You can find all the information about the Valencia Forum, in English, French or Spanish, including the resolutions on www.fcevalencia2002.org.

Jean-Guy Dufour