After a first forum on the Atlantic Tricontinental Initiative, organised in Rabat on 29 and 30 May 2009, and the conference on the Atlantic Geopolitical Space, held in Brussels in July 2011, the Atlantic community will once again be in the spotlight on the occasion of an international forum entitled "Initiative for an Atlantic Community" that the High Commission for Planning is organising on 30 November and 1 December in Skhirat, in partnership with the Bureau of European Policy Advisers (BEPA) under the European Commission.

According to its initiators, the Initiative for an Atlantic Community aims to promote a sense of belonging to a community among the various peoples linked to the Atlantic Ocean. The development of this sense of community should allow these peoples to cooperate better to achieve their aspirations and respond more effectively to the numerous challenges facing this geostrategic space.

The Atlantic community is inclusive and claims several values such as freedom, social cohesion, human dignity, in addition to sustainable economic and ecological development and a decent life for all. It values and recognises the diversity of its peoples, who are called upon to work together through constructive cooperation for the progress of all, note the organisers. Favouring fields as varied as the economy, human development, science, technologies, food security, and the preservation of the region's ecosystems, this initiative intends to address both States and non-governmental actors, the goal being to engage the Atlantic space in an order where law and good practices prevail. In this sense, it should explore the paths of dynamic governance, capable of guaranteeing sustainable development in a century of generalised globalisation that brings as many challenges as opportunities.

In a note relating to this Forum, Ahmed Lahlimi Alami, High Commissioner for Planning, notes that the holding of this event is a continuation of the prospective studies programme that the High Commission for Planning has been conducting since 2004 "in complete institutional and intellectual independence" under the theme "Morocco 2030", with the participation of national and foreign experts and representatives from the worlds of academia, economics, politics, and civil society. Mr. Lahlimi assures that the work of this second edition of the Skhirat forum is part of the same approach of transcending east-west, north-south divides and the ideological and strategic paradigms that have long maintained them throughout recent history.

With globalisation, many things have changed. The values of economic liberalism, human rights, and democracy are today investing more and more countries in the world and notably, with more or less dynamism, on the southern shore of the Atlantic. He underlines, moreover, that the serious crisis to which the last historical sequence of globalisation leads today reveals the proven inability of the growth model it has carried to meet the common challenges for all Atlantic regions in terms of sustainable development, human, energy, and food security, eradication of poverty, reduction of inequalities, and consolidation of social cohesion, in a context of climate change and the multiplication of threats of all kinds to the global economy and the security of men and nations among the most vulnerable.

Representatives of several international and regional organisations (OECD, AfDB, EU, World Water Council, EIB) as well as those from several countries in Africa, Europe, and America are expected at this forum.