Brussels - The European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee will host a high level conference focused on democratic transition, citizenship, balance of power and economic challenges in the European union's (EU) Southern Neighbourhood, on 7 May in room 2Q2, József Antall building, Brussels.

Representatives of major ruling Islamist political parties from Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco will take part in the conference, organised in cooperation with Carnegie Europe, the Royal Institute for International Relations of Belgium and the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland.The conference will be opened byElmar Brok (EPP, DE), Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and closed by Edward McMillan-Scott (ALDE, UK), EP Vice-President responsible for democracy and human rights.Members of the Foreign Affairs Committee José Ignacio Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra (EPP, ES), Pier Antonio Panzeri (S&D, IT), Chair of EP Delegation for relations with the Maghreb countries and the Arab Maghreb Union, andAnnemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck (ALDE, BE), will chair the three panels of the conference, focusing on building new governance structures and institutions; citizenship, polarisation and the balance of power; and economic challenges, linked inter alia to the youth employment crisis.