The countries of the Mediterranean region share a rich cultural and religious heritage that has left its mark on the world, and throughout history the peoples living on its shores have interacted in every area of human endeavour. Despite this, the region has also been fraught with tension of every kind.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is founded on the belief that peace and prosperity can be achieved through cooperation and political dialogue in all fields, including that of security. Fifteen years ago, the Organisation decided to set up a special parliamentary mechanism for promoting security and cooperation in the Mediterranean region. After a series of exploratory discussions between parliamentary representatives of the Mediterranean countries, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in the Mediterranean was born at a meeting held by the IPU in Malaga, Spain in 1992.

On that occasion, representatives of all the Mediterranean parliaments agreed to meet on a continuous basis to foster dialogue with a view to promoting cooperation and security in the region. Over the years, the CSCM process, as the mechanism came to be known, has nurtured political consultations and has advanced constructive ideas to build a regional system of security and cooperation. Indeed, the IPU and the participating parliaments can be proud of the impetus they have given to an idea that has generated numerous initiatives seeking to build effective systems for cooperation in the Mediterranean region.

The CSCM is a unique process in which the Mediterranean parliaments participate on an equal footing to find solutions to the problems of this region. In Valletta, Malta in 1995 and in Marseilles, France in 2000, the CSCM process reiterated the need to respect this basic premise and to work steadily towards the institutionalisation and transformation of the CSCM process into a Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean.

The transformation of the CSCM process into an Assembly will give more stature to parliamentary diplomacy in the Mediterranean region. It will provide the Mediterranean region with a unique parliamentary forum of its own, unattached to any ongoing process, where the members of the Assembly will be able to draw up and examine their own agenda. It will enhance the participation of Mediterranean States, thus enabling them to proceed beyond conceptual analyses to the drawing up of recommendations and opinions on questions of direct concern to them and to the Mediterranean space.

Therefore we, the main participants of the CSCM process, hereby establish the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, and solemnly adopt its Statutes. The inaugural session of this Assembly will be held in Jordan during the second half of 2005.

The parliaments present here today express their gratitude to the parliament of Greece for its support and hospitality in hosting this Fourth and final Conference on Security and Cooperation in the Mediterranean in Nafplion, site of the first parliament of modern-day Greece. We also wish to pay tribute to the work carried out by the IPU and the Mediterranean parliaments over the years in order to lay a solid foundation for a vibrant Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean.

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Note: an electronic version of the Final List of Participants in the Fourth CSCM is available in PDF format. This version requires Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can download free of charge.

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