The Parliamentary Dimension of the 5+5 Dialogue is entrusted to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean. PAM coordinates and promotes the activities of this important sub-regional parliamentary forum. PAM, moreover, represents it at ministerial meetings and Heads of State and Goverrnment Summits of the 5+5 Dialogue, as well as special events of this initiative, such as dedicated military exercises.

The Western Mediterranean Forum, commonly referred to as 5+5 Dialogue, was officially launched in Rome in 1990 as an informal sub-regional forum of like-minded countries, geographically situated on the western rim of the Euro-Mediterranean littoral and comprising of Algeria, France, Italy, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Tunisia. Malta became a member in 1991.

As a trans-Mediterranean security initiative, the rationale of the 5+5 Dialogue is to secure closer cooperation between the five EU member states and the five Arab Maghreb countries through political dialogue and economic cooperation and by encouraging more efficient management of resources as a means of enhancing regional interdependence and development.

Following the resilient re-launching of the Forum in Portugal in 2001, the 5+5 (Foreign Ministers’) Dialogue has been convening regularly and engendering activities geared towards more concrete and tangible cooperation amongst the partner countries, with the most notable activities being the Migration, the Defence and the Transport Initiatives.