Istorija

Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean (DMED)

First delegation: Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Forum

In 1998, the European Parliament sent a delegation to participate in the first Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Forum, held in Brussels.

The Forum served as the parliamentary extension of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. It brought together elected representatives from EU national parliaments and the southern Mediterranean parliaments, as well as the European Parliament.

A new delegation to the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly

The Forum's conversion into a genuine Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly was proposed in a European Parliament resolution in April 2002. The modification was approved by the fifth Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Foreign Ministers (Valencia, April 2002) and the Euro-Mediterranean Forum (Naples, December 2003).

The inaugural sitting for the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly was held in Greece in March 2004.

Following this, the European Parliament constituted a Delegation to the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly in September 2004.

The delegation continued to participate actively in the Assembly's activities and was instrumental in establishing the forum as the parliamentary extension of the Union for the Mediterranean, when the Union was created in 2008.

Final expansion: Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of the Mediterranean

At the sixth plenary meeting of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, held in Amman in March 2010, the full name of the organisation name was changed to "Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of the Mediterranean". The change underlined the Assembly's role as the parliamentary extension of the Union for the Mediterranean, created in 2008 as the expansion of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership.

The Parliamentary Assembly focused on democratic control and input.

In response, the European Parliament's Delegation to the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly changed its name. The new delegation, officially the "Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean", became operational at a meeting on 22 September 2010.

Since then the delegation has been a driving force behind the Assembly's activities. On many occasions, the delegation has spurred the Assembly to pursue long overdue reforms, even if the results achieved still fall short of the European Parliament's expectations.