The ACADEMY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN - established in Naples by the FONDAZIONE LABORATORIO MEDITERRANEO on 10th October 1998 - is the congregation of all of the NATIONAL ACADEMIES and other ACADEMIES and CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS highly representative of the Countries bordering the Mediterranean.
To date the Academy* boasts 561 participating institutions, among which 168 Universities, 67 national and regional Academies, 200 cultural and research Institutes, 48 Cities, etc.

The ACADEMY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN has its FIRST OBJECTIVE in the creation of the critical inventory of the culture of the Mediterranean - through specific and coordinated programs, each entrusted to one of its branches, a bureau or a long established Institution specialising in a particular field.
"Culture of the Mediterranean" signifies its:
A) natural and environmental heritage in their physical and historical evolution;
B) learned and popular imagery heritage, studied through its roots, in its developments and the possible archetypes;
C) cultural heritage, determined by all of its oral and written manifestations.
By cultural heritage it is meant "material" culture, literary and artistic culture, the thought tradition, speculative and scientific, popular culture, the technical and practical traditions.
The ACADEMY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN thus establishes a vast database resulting from the total of the programmed databases, which are being realised or have already been completed.
This in progress electronic inventory constitutes the ensemble of necessary but not sufficient data for the second objective of the ACADEMY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN.

The SECOND OBJECTIVE of the ACADEMY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN consists of establishing the complete ecology of mediterranean culture.
Ecology must be intended for its current linguistic significance, originally defined by Einar Haugen, The Ecology of Language, (Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, 1972) as the studies derived from it and lately redefined by Louis-Jean Calvet, Pour une écologie des langues du monde (Plon, Parigi, 1999 ).
As ecology studies the relationship between organisms and their environment, the ecology of mediterranean culture studies the relationship among mediterranean cultures between them and mediterranean societies, that is essentially the relationships and interactions between mediterranean cultures and also between these cultures and mediterranean societies.
In order to actualise this second objective the ACADEMY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN will undertake through its HEADQUARTERS, BRANCHES and BUREAUX research activities, divulged through the planned publications of the ACADEMY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN.
All research will consist of new and original contributions on the problems tackled, no matter their nature. Excluded is - to the ACADEMY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN - the diffusion of repetitive texts, in so far as everything which scientifically selected information is already contained in its databases.
The synthesis of its research activities will constitute the Encyclopaedia of the Mediterranean, organised following distinct criteria already established by the FONDAZIONE LABORATORIO MEDITERRANEO.
As the global database accomplishes the activities voted at serving the first objective thus the Ebcyclopaedia of the Mediterranean will complete the research and study aimed at the actualisation of the second objective.
The ACADEMY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN has an INTERNAL STRUCTURE, consisting of its CONSTITUTIVE ORGANS, and a SPATIAL ORGANISATION thus articulated#:
HEADQUARTERS: NAPLES
LARGE AREAS COORDINATION BRANCHES: BRUXELLES, North; BARCELLONA, West; MARRAKECH, South; SKOPJE, South-East Europe-Black Sea; AMMAN, Middle East; WARSAW, Eastern Europe.
GENERAL THEMATIC BRANCHES: the Database and Naval Archaeology (CATTOLICA); Childhood (SESTRI LEVANTE); Education (MARRAKECH); Migrations (LECCE); Water and Craftsmanship (MARSEILLES); Art (AMMAN); Archaeology (JERICHO); Peace (RIMINI & JERUSALEM); Islands (SICILY-EOLIE); Food (AVELLINO); Environment (OHRID); East (SKOPJE); West (LISBON); Research (CHIETI-S.MARIA IMBARO); Women (TUNIS); Libraries (ALEXANDRIA); Hypogean structures (MATERA); Endemic species (NARDÒ); Droughts (PORTO TORRES- ASINARA); Human rights (ALGIERS); Transports and Communication (BARCELONA); Cinema (BOLOGNA); Sanctuary Cities (ASSISI); Immaterial Cultures (LA VALLETTA); Geopolitics (BRUXELLES)
BUREAUX FOR SPECIFIC RESEARCH: Poetry (STRUGA); Olive trees (LARINO); la Desertification (MINERVINO MURGE); Stones (CURSI); Schools (MELPIGNANO); Court Houses (SAN CESARIO); Cinema for teenagers (GIFFONI VALLE PIANA).

These are functional articulations, characterised by the nature of the programs to be accomplished, which do not constitute any hierarchical organisation but only a systematic net of meshes with a differing operational entity without a given bureaucratic order.
All of the four spatial entities A), B), C), D), have invariant links amongst themselves.
The HEADQUARTERS gathers the results of the activities of all other BRANCHES and BUREAUX without asserting a dominance, by right nor fact, only responding to its specific duty of accomplishing the FIRST and SECOND OBJECTIVE of the ACADEMY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN.
The identification and constitution of the various branches and bureaux is entrusted to the FONDAZIONE LABORATORIO MEDITERRANEO, invested by the II FORUM CIVILE EUROMED to proceed, by its own initiative and means, firstly to the constitution of the ACADEMY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN and later to the conception and realisation of its spatial organisation.

The Academy of the Mediterranean constitutes - by its legitimacy and representational character - the highest cultural expression of euromediterranean countries, as several of the Academies that constitute it are official representatives of culture in their respective countries.
The Academy of the Mediterranean wishes to be a collegiate institution - officially and effectively representing culture, science and economics - capable of influence the policies of euromediterranean countries and the EU.
The objectives of the Academy are :
1 - To support the strengthening of literary, artistic and scientific creativity, the development of studies, the progress of science and technology, the defence of human, ethic and environmental values.
2 - To identify the values to share which have a clear cultural, social and economic significance albeit respecting the specificity, promoting a dialogue between cultures.
3 - To constitute a "permanent forum" for encounters, analysis and discussions with the scope of producing actions and publications intended to promote the coexistence of the various ethnic groups, as well as working in favour of human rights in the euromediterranean region.
4 - To be the moral and cultural medium of the euromediterranean partnership, with the aim of transforming the discourse that develops in the mediterranean area into an open and constructive dialogue which promotes encounters, exchanges, co-operation and solidarity between neighbouring Countries.
5 - To support socio-cultural and linguistic minorities with the aim of identifying an historical and social unity.

The Academy is supported by a Honorary Committee composed by highly ranked personalities of the scientific, cultural and political world coming from euromediterranean Countries, amongst these:
- HM HASSAN II of Morocco (1)
- HM HUSSEIN BIN TALAL of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (2)
- HM JUAN CARLOS I of Spain (3)
- KIRO GLIGOROV, President of the Republic of Macedonia (4)
- LAMBERTO DINI, Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Republic of Italy (5)
- HM ABDALLAH II BIN HUSSEIN of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
- GUIDO de MARCO, President of the Republic of Malta
- ISMAIL ALAOUI, Minister for National Education - Kingdom of Morocco
- MOHAMED ACHAARI, Minister of Culture - Kingdom of Morocco
- H.A. ALBERTO DI MONACO, Hereditary Prince of the Principality of Monaco
- CLAUDE ALLEGRE, Minister for Scientific Research - France
- ANTONIO BASSOLINO - Italy
- JEAN DAUSSET, Nobel Prize for Medicine - France
- FAROUK HOSNI, Minister of Culture - Egypt
- BERNARD KOUCHNER, UN envoy to Kosovo, ex Minister of Health - France
- FRANÇOIS JACOB, Nobel Prize for Medicine - France
- ANDREA LOSCO, President of the Campania Regional Government - Italy
- SHIMON PERES, Nobel Prize for Peace - Israel
- JORDI PUJOL, President of the Generalitat de Catalunya - Spain
- JACQUES ROCCA-SERRA, deputy to the Lord Mayor of Marseilles - France
- MOUFID SHEHAB, Minister of Education and University - Egypt
- MARIO SOARES, ex President of the Republic - Portugal-
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Amongst the Academies and cultural and scientific Instiutions that participate to the Academy of the Mediterranean there are:
Albania: Academy of Albania;
Bosnia - Herzegovina: Academy of Bosnia;
Cyprus: Nicosia University;
Vatican City: Pontificium Consilium de Cultura; Consiglio di coordinamento delle Accademie Pontificie; Pontificio Istituto di Studi arabi e islamistica;
Croatia: Split University; Culturelink - Zaghreb;
Egypt: Academy of Egyptian Arts; Academy of Scientific Research and Technology; Accademia di Belle Arti della Repubblica Araba d'Egitto (Rome);
France: Université Euro-Méditerranéenne Itinérante ; Académie Française; Académie des Sciences ; Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres ; Académie des Beaux Arts ; Académie des Sciences morales et politiques ; Académie de Médecine ; Académie Goncourt ; Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres de Toulouse ; Académie des Sciences, Lettres et Arts de Marseille ; Académie d'Arles ; Académie des Jeux Floraux de Toulouse ; Académie des Sciences, de l'Agriculture, des Arts et Belles ; Lettres d'Aix-en-Provence ; Académie Universitaire ; Académie d'Agriculture de France ; Académie de l'Eau ; Académie des Sciences, belles-lettres et des Arts Lyon ;
Jordan: Royal Academy for Islamic Civilization Research "Al Albait Foundation" ; The Royal Sociey of Fine Arts; University of Jordan;
Greece: Academy of Athens;
Israel: Israel Academy of Siences and Humanities ; The Peres Center for Peace ; The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute ; Tel-Aviv University;
Italy: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Observer); Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze; Accademia Internazionale per le Scienze Economiche e Sociali; Accademia Properziana del Subasio; Accademia delle Scienze di Bologna; Accademia Internazionale di Scienze e Tecniche Subacquee di Ustica; Accademia di Gioenia- Catania; Accademia Pontaniana; Accademia Nazionale Virgiliana;
Lebanon: Université Libanaise;
Macedonia: Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts;
Malta: Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies;
Morocco: Académie du Royaume du Maroc; Académie du Monde Arabe; Université Cadi Ayyad;
Palestine: University of Jerusalem ; University of Betlehem;
Portugal: Academia Internacional da Cultura Portuguesa ; Academia Nacional de Belas Artes;
Principality of Monaco: International Academy of dialectal languages;
Slovenia: Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts;
Spain: Real Academia Española ; Real Academia de Ciencias Morales y Politicas ; Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando ; Real Academia Sevillana de Ciencias de Sevilla ; Real Academia de Jurisprudencia y Legislacion de Granada ; Real Academia de Bellas Artes de Granada ; Real Academia de Bellas Artes de Santa Isabel de Hungria de Sevilla ; Institut d'Estudis Catalans;
Tunisia: Institut National du Patrimoine ;
Turkey: Academia Mediterranea Halicarnassensis ;

Over 500 institutions, several with a prestigious background, endowed the Academy with the results of their scientific research and publications.
An endowment constituted by:
1 - The activities, scientific publications and results obtained by each incorporated Academy and Institution adhering as a member of right;
2 - The activities, the results obtained and the editorial publications produced by each coopted member on euromediterranean themes;
3 - The activities, the results obtained and the editorial publications produced by the Universities adhering to the Academy on euromediterranean themes;
4 - The activities, the results obtained, multimedia and editorial publications produced by Institutions researching on euromediterranean themes.

To Meet. Communicate, Co-operate: these are the three main actions promoted by the Academy in order to ensure Continuity, Coherence and Consequentiality to the various initiatives to produce results. Training, further education and information are some of the actions planned by the Academy.
Several activities are expected to take place in the offices (central and branches) of the Academy of the Mediterranean, a legacy of the Fondazione Laboratorio Mediterraneo, such as Fora on various themes: the scope is that of attributing structure and coherence to meetings which are normally unrelated to each other and rather occasional. The mission is to actively work towards the cultural and scientific dimension of the Mediterranean.

THE MAIN ACTIVITIES PLANNED ARE:
1 - Annual Meeting of the General Assembly of the Academy
All the members of the ACADEMY participate to this meeting (around 400 people between the members of right, coopted members and corresponding members). In this occasion the problems relating to the identification of unities and diversities within the various cultural discourses are tackled, the plans for integration are prepared through the constant dialogue with the cultural, political and moral representatives of euromediterranean Countries, presenting a final report to the EU.
2 - Meetings of the Bureau
The Bureau of the Academy, constituted as postulated in the approved Statute, meets in order to define the cultural and scientific programs and the relative actions.
3 - The Forum on Human Rights
The Academy of the Mediterranean intends to promote a Forum on Human Rights, with the aim of constituting a Database in progress relating to the analysis of Human Rights practices in the various euromediterranean Countries, with the objective of rendering them as convergent as possible through the institution of a Common Charter of Human Rights in the euromediterranean area.
4 - Editorial and multimedia Activities
The Academy will structurally carry out important initiatives in the editorial and multimedia domain. It will specifically edit:
- the series: The publications of the Academy of the Mediterranean (already cited);
- a Repertory of Mediterranean Academies and the Annals, grouping the information collected by the national and regional Academies and at the assimilated Bodies of the Mediterranean Countries acknowledging their activities, their projects and their cultural and scientific publications;
- a Human Rights Report, containing the results of the planned Forum. The aim of such report is to promote coexistence between the various ethnic groups and balance the different degrees of respect towards human rights in the mediterranean region.
5 - Research Activities
The Academy will carry out actions destined to the pursuit of a new interpretation, with a euromediterranean character, of those cultural sectors that the study tradition in Western Europe has limited to a predominantly eurocentric vision, which still persists today. The diffusion of this new vision of the euromediterranean dimension - at present enclosed in the restricted specialist area - it will be divulged by the media through opportune forms of broadcasting and be included in school curricula and all other forms of cultural communication. A common research program, that would allow the Academies of the different Countries to work together on a common project, could be launched in relation to this first task. Its results will be the object of a publication in a series carrying the following mention: The publications of the Academy of the Mediterranean.
6 - The Database
The Academy of the Mediterranean will set up a database specialising in the various disciplines in the domain of euromediterranean relations. Such database will be connected to the Internet (and accessible on a dedicated web site) and to the Database of the Civil Society which the Fondazione Laboratorio Mediterraneo endowes to the ACADEMY.
Finally, the publication and diffusion, in the languages of the of the Countries to which the participating Academies belong, of a Six-monthly Bulletin of the Academy containing the final report of each General assembly and a description of the main activities carried out during the the preceding six months .
7 - The Mediterranean Prize
The Academy of the Mediterranean wishes to encourage and promote mediterranean creativity, in different specialising fields.
To this end, it will associate itself to the Fondazione Laboratorio Mediterraneo (which has been awarding the Prize for the past three years) for the awarding of the Mediterranean Prize (peace, culture and arts) destined to reward every significant effort for the construction of peace and for the valorisation of culture and the Arts in the Mediterranean.
Furthermore, the Academy will propose to two cities of the Mediterranean to create and award, under its aegis, two special prizes destined to encourage young people's creativity in the Mediterranean.
8 - The Forum on Youth
The Academy of the Mediterranean intends to promote a Euromediterranean Forum of Young People, through which:
­ establish a round table for the discussion and constant confrontation with young people and the representatives of all institutions, State and private, cultural organisations, representatives of all religions, of the employment and trade world, in order to collect proposals and render young people conscious of their future;
­ activate exchanges and twinning experiences between various schools;
­ publish and input experienced results in the network;
­ compare didactical models of euromediterranean Countries;
­ establish a network of euromediterranean schools constituting a database allowing the real time exchange of information relating to euromediterranean themes, and to the activities planned by each single school;
­ the diffusion in euromediterranean schools of editorial and multimedia material linked to euromediteranean culture with the aim of allowing a further development of the themes.
9 - Forum on empowerment and employment.
The Academy of the Mediterranean wishes to promote the Working Seminar on empowerment, employment and work through which:
­ identify actions in order to promote development, education and training, to be activated in function of the themes and problems ascertained;
­ favour individual and social welfare by identifying the aspects that facilitate the formation of positive synergies between different countries and ethnic-religious groups;
­ act in a perspective of promotion of the participation and activation of the resources possessed by euromediterranean countries.
10 - Forum on the Cultural and Environmental Heritage
The Academy of the Mediterranean wishes to promote the Working Forum on the cultural and environmental heritage through which:
­ promote, on a euromediterranean scale, the completion of the cataloguing of the cultural heritage (artistic, architectural, archaeological and environmental) utilising the system already structured by the Fondazione Laboratorio Mediterraneo, with the scope of building a coherent in progress Database that allows its valorisation and improve the employment offer.
­ promote awareness of the cultural heritage of euromediterranean countries;
­ provide a service intended for the diffusion of knowledge, on a euromediterranean scale, about the cultural patrimony and the development of reciprocal cooperation between euromediterranean Institutions;
­ update and improve the scientific census activity of the euromediterranean cultural patrimony through the use of the most recent information technologies.
11 - Forum on women
The Academy of the Mediterranean wishes to promote the Working Forum on women, democracies and rights through which:
­ establish instruments that promote the development of women's citizenship rights, in collaboration with the numerous associations and women's networks existing in the entire euromediterranean area.
­ Propose the creation of a permanent education and training centre in order to offer to women of the two shores the instruments to access and maintain posts of responsibility.
12 - Forum on the intercultural dialogue between religions and between religions and secularism
The Academy of the Mediterranean wishes to promote the Working Forum an the intercultural and interreligious dialogue through which:
­ favour the encounter and debate between the different cultures, religions, traditions and the different models of social organisation of euromediterranean countries;
­ enact opportunities for the encounter, debate and elaboration with the widest and most articulated possible participation;
­ facilitate actions finalised to the usage of schooling as a medium for basic education and socialisation, thus encouraging democratic cohabiting of individuals belonging to diverse countries, cultures and religions. The tolerance and the respect of differences, as well as solidarity, are values that can be learnt and experienced as early as school, by realising specific projects to educate those who will be the adults of tomorrow to positive values.
13 - Forum on Scientific Research
The Academy of the Mediterranean wishes to promote the Forum (every three years) on scientific research through which:
- favour the debate amongst researchers;
- monitor the status of scientific research in euromediterranean countries, comparing results and projects;
- establish personnel and experiences exchanges between euromediterranean scientific institutions.
14 - Forum on Migrations
The Academy of the Mediterranean wishes to promote the Forum (every two years) on migrations in the euromediterranean area through which:
- define the guidelines for international policies through careful study of the phenomenon and an open debate between experts, politicians and the Civil Society;
- debate around the development of the phenomenon in the euromediterranean area and on the ways to control the fluxes and valorisation of immigrants.
15 - Artistic Events
The Academy of the Mediterranean will promote the occurrence of events intended for the valorisation and diffusion of the arts of euromediterranean Countries in the various disciplines (music, dance, cinema, audiovisual, poetry and literature, etc.).
Some of the already planned initiatives are:
Review on Arab Countries' cinema
Review on mediterranean music
Review on theatre in the Mediterranean
Review on mediterranean dance
Review on the literature (poetry and writing) of euromediterranean Countries.

The Academy of the Mediterranean, as a reference institution for the euromediterranean partnership, is essential for specific projects and for all those proposals that will be forwarded on behalf of the EU and other organisms active within the partnership.
The Academy of the Mediterranean has a refrence role for the euromediterranean region on themes relating to human rights and the intercultural tradition which chracterises mediterranean history with aim of intensifying and renewing it in the framework of a modern culture. It intends to:
· be a great "factory" of culture and information at the service of the euromediterranean partnership;
· constitute the centre of the Database of the euromediterranean Civil Society;
· represent the Academies and the cultural Institutions of the adhering Countries granting a permanent representation space to each of them;
· host systematically cultural and artistic events in such a way as to establish main place of reference and encounter for different cultures in the Country and City that will host the main Offices of the Academy of the mediterranean;
· reinforce the cohesion of the social fabric of the various euromediterranean Countries through regular and systematic encounters between:
a- The Mayors of euromediterranean Cities
b- Experts and researchers on matters of Human Rights
c- Students, Academics and experts
d- Representatives of training Councils, businesses, agencies for the promotion and development of employment, experts and researchers
e- Experts and researchers of the environmental and cultural heritage
f- Representatives of institutions, of politics, of businesses, research institutes and of women's networks
g- Experts and researchers on the intercultural and interreligious dialogue