Boldrini urges 'Marshall Plan for Med'

(ANSA) - Rome, May 30 - 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.