(Communicated by the Foreign Ministry Spokesman)
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Silvan Shalom will today (29 November) depart for the Hague, where he will attend the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (Barcelona Process) mid-term ministerial meeting. The gathering with encompass the 25 foreign ministers of the European Union, as well as ten Mediterranean foreign ministers - from Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Turkey, Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
During the course of the conference, FM Shalom will hold meetings with European foreign ministers, as well as his Arab counterparts, including the foreign ministers of Turkey, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Jordan and Mauritania (attending as an observer). He will also meet with the European Union ‘Troika’, EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, and the newly appointed EU External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
The ministerial meeting is a semi-annual gathering. The present meeting will be taking place on the ninth anniversary of the Barcelona Conference, at which the Euro-Med Partnership was first established. The partnership is the only regional framework in which representatives of Israel and the Arab world, including Syria and Lebanon, participate side by side as full members in proceedings.