While addressing a conference organised by the PES - Progressive answers to Europe’s challenges in the Mediterranean: A new foreign, security and development policy for the Middle East and North Africa – in Rome, Parliamentary Secretary Ian Borg said that European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) needs to break away from the rhetoric and reach out more to the needs of all citizens.

Dr Borg said that clear commitment and greater ownership are a necessity if we really want a democratic and stable neighbourhood.  It was high-time to conduct a reality check, he said. Determining what may have gone wrong in our neighbouring countries was only justifiable if an internal self-evaluating exercise amongst EU member states on what needs to be done in order to move forward, was properly conducted, Parliamentary Secretary Ian Borg explained.

A new chapter of prosperous area of cooperation was possible, Dr. Borg said. To achieve that, we need to assure good levels of assistance to the countries nearest to Malta - Libya, Tunisia, Algeria – who remain a priority. This special relationship with the EU's neighbours needs to be as effective as possible and sustained in order to develop an area of shared stability, security and prosperity.  Precisely, moving away from the rhetoric talk and focusing on reaching out to the people, was key to attain that, Dr. Borg said.

Parliamentary Secretary Borg also emphasised upon the fact that the ENP must be a reciprocal process which projects the EU’s own interests, but at the same time it must also encompass the specific interests of each individual partner country.  In all this, it must be pointed out that the EU must not give the impression of imposing a fait accompli on its partners, he concluded.

Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Paolo Gentiloni and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogeherini also participated in this conference.