In the framework of the meeting of the Ambassadors in charge of the EUROMED Partnership held on the 8th April 2008 in Brussels, a hearing was accorded to COPEAM, represented by its Secretary General and Deputy-Secretary General, delegated by the ex President Habib Chawky Hamraoui.
This opportunity allowed the representatives of the Association to present its main activities carried out in the field of the Euro-Mediterranean audiovisual cooperation, including the ones carried out in collaboration with ASBU and EBU, and to ask for the maintenance of the EU Programme EUROMED Audiovisual.
The first result of this action has been obtained on the occasion of the Conference of the 39 EUROMED Countries’ Ministers of Culture (Athens, 30th May 2008) who have recognised, in the Conclusions of the Summit (paragraph 43), the importance of the policies in favour of the audiovisual sector as well as of a Strategy for the Development of Euro-Mediterranean Audiovisual Cooperation, by stressing the necessity of a new regional programme for the Mediterranean aimed at granting the continuity of the current activities.
The third step of this pathway undertaken vis-à-vis the Institutions of the Region, with the aim of carrying on such action, is the Call that the new President of COPEAM, Mr. Emmanuel Hoog, has addressed to the Heads of State and Government - who will gather in Paris, on the 13th July 2008, on the occasion of the creation of the Union for the Mediterranean – for the inclusion of the Mediterranean audiovisual sector among the UpM priorities.
A mobilising action by COPEAM members in their own countries is required so to reach this common goal.