DER 19.-20/6 Thessaloniki. Brev fra nordiske og baltiske statsministre
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Medlemmerne af Folketingets Europaudvalg
og deres stedfortrædere
Bilag
Journalnummer
Kontor
1
400.C.2-0
EU-sekr.
17. juni 2003
Til underretning for Folketingets Europaudvalg vedlægges i forbindelse med
Det Europæiske Råd i Thessaloniki den 19.-20. juni 2003 brev af 13. juni
2003 fra de nordiske & baltiske statsministre til formanden for Det Europæi-
ske Råd.
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Prime Minister Costas Simitis
President of the European Council
Athens
Dear Costas Simitis,
We look forward to our coming European Council in Thessaloniki and our
discussion on external relations, including the European security strategy to
be presented by Secretary General Javier Solana as well as developments on
the international scene.
In this connection, we wish to propose including our relations with the Arab
world in our deliberations.
The terrorist attack of 11 September 2001 and events since then have dem-
onstrated the need for closer political dialogue between the Euro-Atlantic
countries and countries in the Arab world.
In November 2002, EU Foreign Ministers set up a group of personal repre-
sentatives, the Extreme Fundamentalism and Terrorism Group (EFTG), to
analyse the links between fundamentalism, extreme fundamentalism and ter-
rorism, and to explore the root causes of these links.
In their report of 5 May 2003, the personal representatives of our Foreign
Ministers lay out a number of relevant recommendations that deserve full
attention. The report proposes a new Partnership for Progress and Reform
with the Middle East and North Africa, enhanced political dialogue on de-
mocracy and good governance, promotion of economic and social develop-
ment in the Arab world, support for more pluralistic media as well as en-
hanced cultural and religious dialogue with the Muslim world. The partner-
13 June 2003
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ships should be established individually as a partnership of opportunity, start-
ing with a vanguard of interested Arab countries.
The recommendations of the report are to a large extent inspired by the find-
ings of the UNDP's Arab Human Development Report 2002.
We believe we can all agree on the need for closer political dialogue with the
Arab world and for measures in support of pluralism, democratic reform and
economic development. Obviously, we are talking about a mutual process,
launched as a genuine partnership. We are aware that in order to succeed
renewal must take place on terms acceptable to everyone concerned, which
means we must engage in active dialogue between nations and cultures.
We see a need for close cooperation also with our Atlantic partners on this
endeavour. Concerted efforts are vital in order to achieve progress. We
therefore recommend that the idea of a new Partnership for Progress and
Reform be discussed at the upcoming EU-USA Summit on 25th June.
We also suggest that the European Council invite the Commission and the
High Representative to carry forward the work and to formulate a detailed
work plan to be presented to the European Council in October this year for
the implementation of the idea of a new Partnership for Progress and Re-
form with the Middle East and North Africa, taking into full account existing
policies and programmes (e.g. the Euromed process). Such a plan could in-
clude the appointment of a special representative of the European Union on
this important issue and a conference between the European Union and the
Arab League to seek common ground.
We look forward to discussing the above ideas and the way ahead at our
European Council in Thessaloniki.
We are sending a copy of this letter to colleagues in the European Council, to
President Romano Prodi and to Secretary General Javier Solana.
Yours sincerely,
Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Einars Repše
Prime Minister of Denmark
Prime Minister of Latvia
Juhan Parts
Algirdas Brazauskas
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Prime Minister of Estonia
Prime Minister of Lithuania
Anneli Jäätteenmäki
Göran Persson
Prime Minister of Finland
Prime Minister of Sweden