SecureMED Conference
Malta – November, 2006

 

The SecureMED conference was held to precede the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly 2006 Fall Meeting which was held from November 17-19, 2006. This conference aimed to address the vacuum in knowledge and co-ordination in the Mediterranean by discussing a number of security issues of current interest, such as critical infrastructure protection, and attempting to get together European organisations from across the security spectrum – from research institutes to large companies and public entities to SMEs.

 

Dr Alex Sceberras Trigona, former Minister for Foreign Affairs and a DiploFoundation senior fellow, opened the conference giving the audience a run through of Mediterranean history and focusing on the Helsinki Final Act of 1995 when Mediterranean security was first brought into focus right up to the present day.  Following Dr Trigona were a series of presentations on different aspects of the Mediterranean, concerning European security and a stable Mediterranean. The second speaker was Dr Stephen Calleya, director of the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies in Malta, who focused on the current issues surrounding Euro-Mediterranean security.  Joe Woods representing Fraunhofer SIT reflected Dr. Calleya’s views.  Mr.Woods talked about the importance of a stable Mediterranean basin. Over 295 million tourists travel to the Mediterranean every year, most of which are European citizens.  Any crisis could seriously cripple the tourism industry and related, dependent industries.  He highlighted that SecureMed is based on the concept of Malta as a hub of services of the Mediterranean region.

 

Reinhard Hutter and Dr Uwe Nerlich, from the Centre for European Security Strategies (CESS), followed by Walter Schmitz from IABG discussed the technical side to the challenges facing Euro-Mediterranean security especially infrastructure protection. Mr Schmitz talked about a suitable instrument for Critical Infrastructure Protection while Mr Hutter and Dr Nerlich talked about the CESS and the setting up of the European Mediterranean Security Centre (EMSeC).  The centre would provide high quality security consultancy and innovative products to EU agencies, international organisations and NGOs. They also presented the case for a Malta-based EMSeC. It was pointed out that this was Malta’s opportunity to increase Mediterranean dialogue, being a perfect candidate because it has no military power.  This coincided with what Dr Calleya spoke of earlier in the conference underlining that Malta poses no threat to its neighbours, thus giving Malta a genuine reason for cooperation in the Mediterranean. Despite Malta now being a member of the European Union it holds a status of neutrality. A Malta-based EMSeC would have a dual role: to support security interests of Malta and stakeholders in Malta and to provide own security services to the growing security market in the Mediterranean area and beyond. The representatives from the CESS and IABG continued their presentations on the structure and layout of their institutions. Reasons why Malta is ideal to host the EMSeC (geostrategic, neutrality, etc) were further highlighted.

 

Other speakers present were Brian Cranmer, from the Malta Maritime Authority, who spoke about Mediterreanean maritime security issues, and Nadine Cauchi, from Malta Enterprise, who spoke about business participation in EU security-related programmes and a European Security Research Programme.