The EMP aims at bringing the peoples of the envisaged Euro-Mediterranean space closer together, to promote shared or at least mutually compatible understandings of governance and collective rule-making, to eliminate discomforting cultural stereotypes and, in general, to project positive images among the partner polities. Arguably, such a ‘pro-active’ approach to fostering a sense of Euro-Mediterranean (societal) security challenges the islamophobic ‘clash of civilisations’ thesis and its assorted conceptions of religious and cultural conflict. The means for bringing the component collectivities closer together with the view to setting the scene for a ‘new cultural order’ [60], rest on an inter-cultural hermeneutic dialogue in a wide range of issue areas like cultural heritage, media, inter-faith communication, and so on. The third basket highlights common roots (as part of a common experience) and the richness of the region’s cultural diversity, in an attempt to do away with negative pre-conceptions. But building the socio-cultural Partnership is a delicate process, not least due to difficulties inherent in sustaining a constructive cultural dialogue among distinct units. All the more so, if such a dialogue aims at transcending images from the region’s colonial past, feelings of intolerance and xenophobia, as well as a narrow view of national, and in some cases ethnic, identity. An additional obstacle may be that any inter-civilisational dialogue implies cultural exchanges and mobility that are not always easy to achieve in the southern rim. In light of the above, what is needed is a new hermeneutics of north-south perceptions, together with the inclusion of religious and socio-cultural rights in the debate on democracy and modernity. Although the third basket is often projected as being only of secondary importance to the politico-economic dimensions of the EMP (focusing on security and free trade issues), the view taken here is that it is potentially the most revolutionary outcome of the nascent regional process. It is a recognition that trade, investment and economic assistance are part of an evolutionary and purposeful process that incorporates a substantive human dimension. After making obligatory references to ‘dialogue and respect among cultures and religions’ as ‘a necessary precondition for bringing peoples closer’, the third basket identifies the need for a programme of human exchanges between the two coastal shores, whilst including the utilisation and further development of human resources in the region. In addition, it touches upon the sensitive issues of illegal immigration, organised crime and drugs trafficking, as well as on co-operation between local authorities, trade unions, interest associations, and public and private companies. Finally, the Declaration recognised the challenges posed by ever-alarming demographic trends in southern Mediterranean and declared that these should be counterbalanced by appropriate policy measures to advance socio-economic progress.
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