The Mediterranean Citizens’ Assembly Foundation (MCAF), rooted in twenty countries and twenty-nine Mediterranean cities, seeks peace, justice, freedom, dignity and prosperity for all people regardless of their ideas, religious convictions, ethnicity, language and social status.

At the beginning of the year 2022, the outbreak of a new conflict between Ukraine, the republics of Donetsk and Lugansk and the Russian Federation is a threat to peace and coexistence for the peoples of Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals and, of course, for the Mediterranean. The continuation of unresolved conflicts in the Balkans and the Middle East portends the worst scenarios of coexistence for our peoples economically, socially and politically. The migration movements that have already been underway for many years, the obvious creation of an even stronger movement of displaced persons after these events, with the resulting deaths and devastation, are phenomena that are already unfolding, even if they could have been avoided.

The interference of actors outside the region and the role aspired to by NATO, the only surviving military alliance after the Cold War, do not contribute to mitigating the effects of a conflict that has reached its most violent expression in the last few days.

Contrary to what has been highlighted, the accelerated expansion and/or extension of the EU and NATO to the East over the last 30 years has not translated into democratic deepening in the new partners. At the same time, these moves have been perceived as a threat by Russia, whose concern increased proportionally to the EU’s and/or NATO’s rapprochement to its borders.

In the face of these dramatic developments, and in view of its commitment to a world in which the force of reason prevails over the dialogue of arms, the ACM Foundation calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and a peaceful solution to the current conflict in Ukraine. It calls on the international institutions, especially the European Union, to cease reprisals that affect peace, freedom, coexistence and prosperity of all peoples on both sides of the conflicting borders. In return, it calls on the European Union and its most influential members to deploy all the instruments at their disposal to create the conditions for dialogue and consensus based on reason, peace and the good of the peoples.

As citizens of the Mediterranean we say categorically NO TO WAR!

PEACE IS THE ONLY WAY.

25 February 2022