Guide

For centuries the Mediterranean has been a crossroads for travellers, artisans, merchants and people moving around the world. The future of the new European Union will be peaceful and prosperous only if a concrete possibility of integration between citizens from other continents (migrants and workers) exists. The regions of the Mediterranean Basin have to face an important challenge in helping the member States of the European Union to define the best strategies in order to legally recognize people seeking a new home, a new job, a new future. The institutions must help people, providing services and information and elaborating procedures to make integration more effective for asylum seekers, for those who want to be naturalized, to work, to reunite with their families or to get health assistance. Mutual respect, cultural identity and welcoming of poor people are elements of the heritage of common values that the Regions of Mediterranean area want to promote and to spread through concrete and effective policies of economic and social growth.