• by Franco Frattini
• Monday, July 18, 2011
• Inter Press Service

The latest events in the Mediterranean and Middle East are a call for adequate responses to the region's need for economic and political stability, development, employment, and resolution of migration issues, writes Franco Frattini, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In this analysis, Frattini calls for a coherent and broad-based Marshall Plan to unite the key international actors to address the political, economic, cultural and social (migration) dimensions of the "Arab Spring".

Italy, for years the region's top European trade partner, is engaged in a considerable flow of investments to and from the region and has crucial energy interests there. In an effort to jumpstart economic and social growth, we recently launched an initiative to establish a "Mediterranean Partnership Fund" (MPF) to finance those projects deemed most significant through public, private, sovereign, and even extra-regional sources. The MPF would be a trust fund capable of acting as a catalyst mainly in the development of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises that could increase and stabilise employment levels.

(*) Franco Frattini is the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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