In the presence of Vice President Gianfranco Fini, Undersecretary of the Presidency of the Council Gianni Letta and Minister for Productive Activities Antonion Marzano representing the Italian Presidency, Israeli Minister for National Infrastructures Joseph I. Paritzky, President of the Energy and Natural Resources Authority of the Palestinian National Authority, Minister Azzam Shawwa, and Vice President of the European Commission Loyola De Palacio signed a declaration today at Palazzo Chigi that lays the foundation for an important three-way EU-Israel-PNA cooperation in the Energy sector.

The agreement will favour the interconnection of Israeli and Palestinian electrical networks. The document, significantly entitled "Declaration of Rome", is the first agreement signed by an Israeli and a Palestinian Minister in three years, since the beginning of the second intafada in other words. It is important that this initiative takes place as a result of the action of the European Union and in the context of a broad-based three-way action (EU-Israel-Palestine), but which involves the entire Euro-Mediterranean basin. This demonstrates the role of the Italian Presidency of the EU in confronting the problems that afflict the populations daily in that region.

In this regard the energy sector is certainly a crucial one, and key to the economic development to which Italy attaches particular importance, as demonstrated in its plan for the reconstruction of the Palestinian economy approved by the G8. Energy may indeed be a factor in integration capable of creating common interests between those two populations.

Today's declaration foresees the institution of a joint Israeli-Palestinian Energy Office and is also an indispensable element in the completion of the so-called "Euro-Mediterranean electrical loop" from Morocco to Tunisia. This loop, once completed, will interconnect the electrical systems of the southern shores of the Mediterranean with those of the European Union. A prospect that will lead, among other things, to greater security in the energy supply of the countries involved and a future area of free trade throughout the region.