MADRID, May 7, 2010 (WAFA)- A major international conference on “Europe and the Arab Countries: Views, Opinions and Perspectives” concluded today in Casa Arabe Headquarters in Madrid.
Organized by the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation in partnership with Casa Arabe and the Barcelona Center for International Affairs (CIDOB), the two day conference has examined the state of the complex relations in different fields related to Arab-European relations, with a focus on the perceptions, perspectives and expectations of people from the Arab region towards Europe and of Europeans towards the Arab Region.
At the heart of the international conference have been two new studies on mutual perceptions “The European Union and the Arab World: What do Arabs think of and expect from Europe”, conducted by Casa Arabe and the CIDOB, and the forthcoming Anna Lindh Foundation's Report on Euro-Med Intercultural Trends which contains a public opinion survey on perceptions and values with 13,000 people across the two shores of the Mediterranean and will be officially launched region-wide in September 2010.
Speaking at the close, Andre Claret, Executive Director of the Anna Lindh Foundation said: “The study conducted by the Anna Lindh Foundation among 13.000 people of 13 Euro-Mediterranean countries shows that the societies of the region expect that the Union for the Mediterranean can bring to them innovation and entrepreneurship, respect for other cultures and youthful dynamism”.
From her side the director of Casa Arabe, Gema Martin Muñoz, said: 'The results of the study we have undertaken show that the expectations of the Arabs towards Europe have not been met sufficiently. We believe that there are many hopes in what Europe can contribute with, in order to achieve important social and political transformations in the Arab region.”
The conclusions of the Madrid Seminar will be disseminated by the Anna Lindh Foundation among its 43 National Civil Society Networks in the Union for the Mediterranean, which includes over three thousand member organizations, and will be also published on the online portal of the three partner institutions.
