In the ambit of the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the European Union, the first Euromed ministerial meeting on migrations will be held on 18 and 19 November, in Albufeira, Algarve.

Franco Frattini, vice-president of the European Commission, as well as the European ministers responsible for migrations and their colleagues from Algeria, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Libya (observer), Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey will attend in ministerial meeting, chaired by the minister for home affairs, Rui Pereira.

Since 1995 that the Euro-Mediterranean partnership has resulted in a significant reinforcement of several areas such as policies and security, as well as economic and financial, social, cultural and human relations, which have brought clear advantages to both sides.

This meeting, especially dedicated to migrations, represents another fundamental step towards the consolidation of social and human relations.

Migrations have been one of the priority areas throughout this semester. Several initiatives have taken place not only in the ambit of legal immigration (High Level Conference on Legal Immigration, Lisbon, September 2007) as well as in the field of fight and prevention of illegal immigration (reinforcement of the Frontex agency's capacity and the accomplishment of the first exercise, in Oporto, of the RABITS teams of quick intervention at the borders).

The initiative that is now being developed will deal with the migrations theme in the context of migration and development (remittances and micro-credit), legal immigration (opportunities) and illegal immigration. Our objective is that this meeting will result in a political declaration that will turn into concrete actions and projects.

In terms of adopting specific measures, there will be a pilot-project for a future site where information can be found and where the transfer of bank remittances will be made easier.

We believe that, in this way, we are giving a significant political impulse to the reinforcement of intercultural dialogue and to the approximation of societies and cultures, with a guaranteed impact on the lives of citizens and on the development of partnership relations between the two shores of the Mediterranean.

Click here to know more about this meeting.