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A coalition of shared
values
1. The Fondazione Mediterraneo has as its main objective the
institution of a Coalition of Shared Values and Interests among the countries
which, through the centuries, have acted around the Mediterranean – such as the
Hellenic, Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic cultures – and which today, in
continuing their social and cultural reciprocal influences, represent the area
of the “Greater Mediterranean”: a tradition of synergies, sometimes tumultuous
and troubled, but from which an indissoluble interdependence arose, stronger
than all contrasts, hostilities, and wars. The Fondazione, which during the last
ten years has made valuable these synergies, giving them importance, wishes now
to go on in the name of peace and cooperation among the populations and in
respect of the fundamental rights set forth in the UN charter.
2. The Coalition acts on the premise of developing models and
programmes for cultural and material growth within the region, based on the
concepts of equal dignity and mutual respect among different cultural identities
– acknowledging that these peoples have their own principles and values, but at
the same time must be open to exchange and discussion. Furthermore, the
Fondazione is committed to the principle that fundamental human rights –
including gender equality – constitute a common denominator among all peoples,
and will support its partners’ efforts to actualise this vision in the “Greater
Mediterranean”.
3. The Fondazione has decided to launch a five-year programme
(2006-2010) entitled The Mediterranean, Europe, and Islam: Actors in Dialogue,
its mission being to strengthen mutual understanding and co-operation among the
countries of the southern and northern shores of the Mediterranean and Europe
and the Muslim communities within and outside Europe. This programme will be
realised through policies of recognition of the Other, (respecting the
representative diversity and multiculturalism of Mediterranean societies)
through the development of human exchanges in various fields, and the diffusion
of knowledge and shared well-being. The programme will include different
projects with specific objectives as part of the institutional activities of the
Fondazione. In particular, the project entitled Social Participation and
Mediation means to bring together prominent political and social actors in Civil
Society from both the north and south banks of the Mediterranean, striving to
promote analysis of the needs and priorities for social policies of inclusion
which will allow them to become actors in dialogue and in development both at
the local and global level.
4. The reconciliation in the “Greater Mediterranean” needs a search
for Solidarity in Development. Young people must receive education and
professional training in order to reduce obstacles to their personal development.
A great effort is necessary to permit the equal inclusion of young graduates
into the working world. As such, the Fondazione will start a specific action
aiming at identifying individual formative needs in relation to new
opportunities in the labour market of the “Greater Mediterranean”. Specific
programmes must be organised for young people in view of introducing them to the
different civilizations and the common cultural roots that cultural exchanges
and reciprocal influences of the past have made flourish within a future
oriented global vision in which the roots join with new challenges and
opportunities.
5. The Fondazione, in the light of its vision and its awareness of
the present contradictions of Mediterranean societies – unemployment, poverty,
technological and organizational deficits, centralization of decision-making
powers, etc. – promotes the study and research for the improvement of university
systems and scientific disciplines: overall, to this end, a feasibility study
will be performed of a Distance-Learning University of Science of the Greater
Mediterranean.
6. The growing labour market mobility must be accompanied by the
liberalization of exchange and of capital mobility. Different cultures and
professions can progress in harmony, and can, together, improve the overall
prosperity of the average individual, local communities, states and Federation
of States. The Fondazione will promote studies which will facilitate the gradual
opening of labour markets and the analysis of the factors which have so far
hindered its progress and which can continue to hinder the achievement of these
objectives. In the future, a programme will be promoted with the aim of creating
exchanges among institutions in various fields, and networks for further
exchanges will be constructed.
7. The openness to the global has not to damage local cultures and
will have instead to merge tradition, modernity, and innovation. The engagement
in a dialogue is envisioned in respect of new politicises where mutual cultural
respect supports the defense of individual human rights. This is, in fact, the
new frontier of social experimentation, in which intensive migratory processes
have brought about a co-habitation of different religious and cultural groups.
The Fondazione will continue to progressively formulate networks throughout
every area of the “Greater Mediterranean” for the promotion of valuable
publications about the region’s various traditions and also through
ethno-cultural exhibitions, ethno- musical performances, and congresses
exploring these cultures’ origins and evolutionary courses.
8. The diffusion of prosperity requires the promotion of a labour
division and the development of comparative advantages. This is the climate to
support the investments. The protection of people’s rights, of the weaker social
classes, and of less-favoured areas, must be undertaken in consideration of
market rules, combining efficiency and solidarity. The Fondazione will do its
best to encourage optimal flows of investment, stressing the need of mutual
trust, encouraging culturally-sensitive commercial methods, and stressing the
natural tendencies of cultures to co-exist and develop in harmony, once the
economic and social factors of inequality have been removed.
9. The social responsibility of an individual, of territorial
communities, and of professional associations, will contribute with political
and governmental ethics to realise the greatest common prosperity, to establish
the principles of justice and equality, and to preserve the sustainability of
eco-systems. A pluralist society will encourage the emergence of
multi-partisanship and of a political dialectic founded on a variety of
programmes through which the different parties will try to respond to the needs
and aspirations of society. Governments will be composed on the base of one or
more of these political programmes. No one solution can satisfy everyone.
Democracy cannot be founded in a laboratory, nor can it be cloned. The
combination of values and choices of political programmes from the citizens will
make the best model of democracy for each country. The Fondazione will dedicate
a newsletter for the discussion of these problems, and also to inform public
opinion. The Premio Mediterraneo, the Chaire Averroès, and the main activities
of the Maison de la Méditerranée will have as a point of reference the
guidelines here expressed.
10. The construction of a Mediterranean society, solid in shared
principles and values, is incompatible with the so-called “clash of
civilizations”, the use of force, and the violent subversion of international
political and social order. Those who proclaim evil ideology, those who
instigate division, those who incite the usurpation of power must be morally
isolated, especially if we are to eliminate future conflict. The Fondazione will
act specifically so as to avoid offending human dignity.
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