Lower House Speaker Laura Boldrini
called for a Marshall Plan for the Mediterranean on Monday.
"Now is the time for Europe to come up with a grand
strategic plan that can combine medium- and long-term vision
with significant economic resources and political commitment,"
Boldrini wrote in a Facebook post after she and Senate Speaker
Pietro Grasso were handed over the presidency of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean
(PA-UfM).
The UfM is an intergovernmental organization of 43
countries from Europe and the Mediterranean Basin: the 28 member
states of the European Union and 15 Mediterranean partner
countries from North Africa, the Middle East and Southeast
Europe.
"(We took the leadership) in the most difficult, critical
and dangerous moment for our region's northern and southern
shores," Boldrini said.
"It's time for a 'Marshall Plan' for the Euro-Mediterranean
area and for Africa. I don't say so out of generosity, or a
utopian wish - I say so because this is in the interests of all.
If we Europeans don't invest in the stability of the countries
that face onto the Mediterranean, they will destabilize us".
The Marshall Plan was an American initiative to aid Western
Europe, in which the United States gave billions in economic
support to help rebuild devastated economies after the end of
World War II.
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