Consequently, if we focus more on economic development, on beefing up the private sector, on promoting prosperity and creating wealth, then, we are automatically creating an economic fabric which will be a solid base for society, which in turn will be strengthened and sustained.

Against such a background, water ceases to be just another factor involved in the process of crop production on irrigated land and becomes a resource which is essential to the protection of the social, economic and environmental fabric in rural areas.

– (PT) Mr President, Mr President-in-Office, Commissioner Barnier, ladies and gentlemen, we listened carefully to the speech which Mr Gama gave at the beginning of this debate. To a certain extent, this set out the points of the triangle which has formed and which continues to form the shape of the action and work of the Portuguese Presidency.

We can present you with a budget and describe it as having successfully bolstered the social and economic fabric of this country''.

[1] The participants in the Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Ministers for Industry: - mindful of the Declaration of the Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Barcelona on 27 and 28 November 1995 and the relevant Work Programme; - in consideration of the general principles it defines for developing economic and financial partnership and in particular the importance of sustained, balanced growth aimed at creating a zone of shared prosperity; - recognizing the strategic role of industrial cooperation in developing a sound competitive economic fabric and in creating jobs; - stressing the need - as a contribution to industrial competitiveness ...[+++]- for suitable infrastructures in the field of transport, energy, telecommunications and water resources, and for adequate growth in the financial system; - mindful that in the sphere of industrial cooperation, it is the task of the public authorities to encourage and develop an environment that will draw investments and initiatives to the Mediterranean's southern and eastern regions and that it is the task of economic and commercial operators to derive the maximum advantage from the opportunities on offer; - mindful of the role in endogenous development that may be played by the Mediterranean partnership and by forms of active cooperation between southern Mediterranean countries to be implemented in a climate of political and economic stability; - stressing the importance of the entrepreneurial system for Euro- Mediterranean socio-economic development and the desirability of giving this system a role in making proposals; - in the conviction that the goals of economic and financial partnership, as outlined in Barcelona and elaborated in this Declaration, can only be pursued in a structured, integrated and coordinated way; - aware that other European, international and regional fora sharing the same expertise and responsibility as the participants of this Conference must also be involved in the pursuit of these goals; - in the h ...

If we indeed are on the brink of losing many of our farm families to bankruptcy, then we will truly be tearing holes in the economic and social fabric of this province and in the fabric of a federation based on mutual aid in times of crisis.