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Margallo asks the EU to provide financial support for "Arabic Spring" democratic transitions
From February 12, 2013 until February 21, 2013
Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, José Manuel García-Margallo, requested a greater commitment and financial support from the European Union for countries on the southern shores of the Mediterranean, especially those which are going through a delicate transition towards democracy as a result of the revolutions which occurred in what is now known as the "Arab Spring."
The Foreign Office chief took advantage of the opening ceremony of the Spanish and Moroccan Seminar on Mediation in the Mediterranean, which took place on February 11, to ask the European Central Bank to “assign sufficient funds to aid in the democratic transition with welfare programs” in the region.
García-Margallo directly related the social deprivation suffered by certain Mediterranean countries with the conflicts and crisis in the region. “Poverty is fertile ground for radicalism,” he said. “Where there is poverty, where the State fails to fulfill its obligation to provide the essential services which ensure human dignity, radical groups grow which give those services but demand blind obedience in exchange.”
“We must discuss poverty at this forum,” insisted the Spanish Minister in his speech before those attending this seminar, which began yesterday at the Palace of Viana, as part of a Spanish-Moroccan initiative carried out with the sponsorship of Casa Árabe and Casa del Mediterráneo, and organized by the International Center of Toledo for Peace.
Representatives from approximately twenty countries, from both international and regional organizations, as well as the academic world and civil society organizations –including the former President of Portugal and High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, Jorge Sampaio; Spain’s State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Gonzalo de Benito; the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Jordan Ryan, and the Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean, Fathallah Sijilmassi–participated in this forum of discussion to build the foundations of an articulated mechanism for conflict prevention and resolution through negotiation and dialogue. All of the speakers at the first session advocated the promotion of joint efforts towards mediation in the Mediterranean region through local, national and international role-players.
The Foreign Minister of Morocco, Saad-Eddine El Othmani, expressed that he is a partisan of taking advantage of the synergies between the public and private sectors so that mediation can be useful and effective. Year 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Yemen’s Tawakkul Karman –who celebrated the second anniversary of the fall of the dictatorship in her country yesterday– gave the welcoming speech for the Mediation in the Mediterranean initiative, created at the most recent United Nations General Assembly in New York. Furthermore, she asked all those attending to strive even further to include women in mediation and conflict resolution processes.
Fully in concordance with the wishes expressed by the founder of “Women Journalists Without Chains,” the Director of Casa del Mediterráneo, Almudena Muñoz Guajardo, invited her to debate over the role of women in conflict mediation at a meeting which could be held next summer at the headquarters of the institution which she manages in Alicante.
Minister García-Margallo publicly expressed his gratitude for the sponsorship provided by Casa del Mediterráneo and Casa Árabe, whose Director General, Eduardo López Busquets, underlined the importance of the role played by both institutions at the service of foreign policy in Spain.
García-Margallo directly related the social deprivation suffered by certain Mediterranean countries with the conflicts and crisis in the region. “Poverty is fertile ground for radicalism,” he said. “Where there is poverty, where the State fails to fulfill its obligation to provide the essential services which ensure human dignity, radical groups grow which give those services but demand blind obedience in exchange.”
“We must discuss poverty at this forum,” insisted the Spanish Minister in his speech before those attending this seminar, which began yesterday at the Palace of Viana, as part of a Spanish-Moroccan initiative carried out with the sponsorship of Casa Árabe and Casa del Mediterráneo, and organized by the International Center of Toledo for Peace.
Representatives from approximately twenty countries, from both international and regional organizations, as well as the academic world and civil society organizations –including the former President of Portugal and High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, Jorge Sampaio; Spain’s State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Gonzalo de Benito; the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Jordan Ryan, and the Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean, Fathallah Sijilmassi–participated in this forum of discussion to build the foundations of an articulated mechanism for conflict prevention and resolution through negotiation and dialogue. All of the speakers at the first session advocated the promotion of joint efforts towards mediation in the Mediterranean region through local, national and international role-players.
The Foreign Minister of Morocco, Saad-Eddine El Othmani, expressed that he is a partisan of taking advantage of the synergies between the public and private sectors so that mediation can be useful and effective. Year 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Yemen’s Tawakkul Karman –who celebrated the second anniversary of the fall of the dictatorship in her country yesterday– gave the welcoming speech for the Mediation in the Mediterranean initiative, created at the most recent United Nations General Assembly in New York. Furthermore, she asked all those attending to strive even further to include women in mediation and conflict resolution processes.
Fully in concordance with the wishes expressed by the founder of “Women Journalists Without Chains,” the Director of Casa del Mediterráneo, Almudena Muñoz Guajardo, invited her to debate over the role of women in conflict mediation at a meeting which could be held next summer at the headquarters of the institution which she manages in Alicante.
Minister García-Margallo publicly expressed his gratitude for the sponsorship provided by Casa del Mediterráneo and Casa Árabe, whose Director General, Eduardo López Busquets, underlined the importance of the role played by both institutions at the service of foreign policy in Spain.
