Some new KICs co-location centers could be located there too, where partners would have excellent conditions to work closely together on a daily basis (this should not be detrimental to the main policy guideline for a distribution of localization of KICs that helps strengthening the local-global connectivity and co-operation with different national and regional authorities and universities, local clusters and SMEs).

The current crisis and its common challenges – the deterioration of the security environment, the global issues like energy, climate change, nuclear proliferation and the new power centres, the regional issues like the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Africa – require maximum intensification of transatlantic cooperation.

Right Hon. Joe Clark (Calgary Centre, PC): Mr. Speaker, I draw to the attention of the House the signing by a Calgary company, Canadian Nexen, of the first community water project in the Middle East under the UN secretary-general's new global compact initiative.

I have in mind, in particular, the important impetus given to this debate by the World Bank, especially through its Comprehensive Framework document, and by the International Monetary Fund, where, for the first time, an institution of this kind has put the problem of reducing poverty at the centre of its policy guidelines and has forged a hitherto unimaginable link, for a body of this type, between debt relief and poverty.

However we look at it, globalization is not a choice but a fact of life - as witness the information technology revolution, the emergence of new centres of strategic strength such as the Far East and the arrival on the world market of more than two billion more people following the opening up of previously closed societies.

COMMUNITY EXTERNAL SHIPPING RELATIONS - COUNCIL CONCLUSIONS "THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, CONSIDERING the exchange of views it held on the European Community's external relations in the field of maritime transport; CONSIDERING the importance of maritime transport in economic and trade relations between the European Community and third countries; REQUESTS the Commission to provide the Council as soon as possible with a communication on maritime relations with third countries, including the general guidelines it suggests in this area, and on priority actions to be undertaken, including in international fora; the Council records its intention to hold detailed discussions on the basis of such communication as soon as it receives it; R ...[+++]EQUESTS the Commission to submit to the Council as soon as possible a report on the Community action it proposes with regard to external relations with the countries of Western and Central Africa on maritime matters, taking into account the measures already taken, in particular the fact-finding mission entrusted to it by the Council at its meeting on 29 and 30 November 1993, and recent developments in this sector; EMPHASIZES the importance for the maritime policy of the Community and its Member States of the discussions in the Negotiating Group on Maritime Transport Services (NGMTS) currently taking place in the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the need to ensure consistency between these negotiations and Community policy guidelines in this sector in accordance with the principle of free and fair competition".