Euromed Heritage has created a unique opportunity for the Euro-Mediterranean Partners to learn about each other, and for southern countries to make the most of their heritage. In parallel with other programmes promoting cultural dialogue through human, scientific and technological exchanges, Euromed Heritage aims at turning the care and conservation of the Mediterranean's past into a cornerstone of its future.

Euromed Heritage I was launched in September 1998 when ministers of culture from the Euro-Mediterranean Partners met in Rhodes. They gave the green light to sixteen projects to be funded under the MEDA programme. Their priorities were to:

• Highlight Mediterranean Heritage by creating inventories that begin to document its composition and extent, promoting high quality tourism, and encouraging networking between museums and other cultural institutions.
• Exchange expertise and technical assistance, especially in the field of heritage conservation and institutional support.
• Promote knowledge about heritage among the public and decision makers, and create a compendium of know-how and techniques used in Mediterranean heritage.
• Offer training in heritage-related skills and professions.

Launched in 2001, Euromed Heritage II learned from the experience of Euromed Heritage I. The new projects continue to promote the cause of cultural dialogue, but have a more thematic approach in that they broadly seek to create comprehensive bodies of knowledge and expertise. They place particular emphasis on preserving the Mediterranean's non-material heritage.

Pursuing the same ongoing aims as Euromed Heritage II, 4 projects selected during the call for proposals relating to this programme started in 2004. These four projects have been named as Euromed Heritage III.

In November 1995, Foreign Ministers from the European Union (EU) and 12 prospective Partners from the Mediterranean's southern and eastern shores met in Barcelona.The declaration they signed launched a new Euro-Mediterranean Partnership between the EU and its southern neighbours; one that aimed to transform the entire Mediterranean into an area of peace, stability and shared prosperity. The Barcelona Declaration acknowledged it would only be possible to build a lasting partnership if it was based on mutual respect and understanding. The intention was, therefore, to create programmes of dialogue and joint action that would help the partners understand their respective traditions and culture. By the mid 1990s, Europe had been eyeing the former Iron Curtain countries for some years, and southern Mediterranean countries had grown worried that the EU was no longer interested in starting a closer relationship with them. But Barcelona was no blind date; the EU and its southern neighbours realised they shared growing concerns over many issues from the environment to terrorism.

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The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership is an alliance between the fifteen members of the European Community and twelve southern Mediterranean Partners: Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, plus Cyprus and Malta, EU members in 2004. The 'Barcelona Process' offers forums for debating issues of common concern, together with regional cooperation programmes in economic matters, educational and scientific exchanges, information technology, and co-operation in cultural projects. This kind of dialogue should lead to deeper mutual understanding between the citizens of all 27 Partner countries.

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On 11 March 2003 the European Commission adopted a setting out a new framework for relations over the coming decade with Russia, the Western NIS and the Southern Mediterranean - countries who do not currently have a perspective of membership but who will soon find themselves sharing a border with the Union. The ministers of foreign affairs of the Euro-mediterranean conference, meeting in Naples, 2-3 december 2003 took note of the EU Wider Europe/New Neighbourhood Initiative. They noted that the policy aims to support reforms as well as regulatory and legislative approximation, particularly as regards the internal market, between the EU and Mediterranean partners, as they are ready to engage in such intensified cooperation. To develop its full potential to promote political and economic reform based on the shared values reflected in the Barcelona Declaration, the initiative will need to include credible incentives. They acknowledged that one of the aspects of these new policies is to reinforce the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership in all its chapters as well as the joint ownership of this process with a view to fostering stability, development and democracy in the countries to the South, in the common interest of the E.U. and Mediterranean partners.

Euromed Report 71 Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Ministers of Foreign Affairs (Naples, 2-3 December 2003)

Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation