A call for strengthening Euro-Mediterranean cooperation ahead of 30th anniversary of Barcelona Process
17 February 2025 | Corporate news
In anticipation of the 30th anniversary of the Barcelona Process, the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) gathered more than 120 institutional and civil society actors as well as senior officials from the organisation’s 43 Member States in an event co-organised with the IEMed to address what the organisation’s future vision, priorities and mandate should be.
The Open Consultation on the UfM Future Vision and Mandate was organised within the reform process and the definition of new strategic priorities to be implemented over the 2026-2030 that the UfM initiated to better respond to the current geopolitical and socio-economic context in the Mediterranean region. This consultative process stressed the need for synergies between relevant policies such as the new EU Pact for the Mediterranean and the UfM’s work.
“This event is a key step to explore strategies and responses to the region’s challenges and enhance UfM’s impact on the ground”, said Senén Florensa, IEMed’s executive president, at the opening session of the meeting.
“The 30th anniversary of the Barcelona Process arrives at a time of profound disruption in the region,” UfM Secretary General Nasser Kamel said at the event’s opening. “But if the conflict in the Middle East has proven anything, it is that the region’s stability is central to global security. 2025 must therefore be a year of a renewed commitment to the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, where we empower its institutional framework; reshaping the UfM mandate and capacity to better address our region’s most pressing challenges together.”
The IEMed, acting as Secretariat of the EuroMeSCo network of Euro-Mediterranean think-tanks, co-organise the round table “Towards a renewed mandate: the UfM future priorities”. It included the participation of Intissar Fakir, Director of Program on North Africa and the Sahel (MEI); Katarzyna Sidło, Senior Policy Analyst for the Middle East and North Africa (EUISS); Youssef Cherif, Director, Columbia Global Center Tunis; Aldo Liga, Research Fellow MENA Centre (ISPI); Nadim Houry, Executive Director (ARI); Luisa María García, Head of the Department for Cooperation with the Arab World and Asia (AECID); Jeremie Fosse, Co-founder and President, eco-union; Jusaima Moiad-Azm Peregrina, Professor, University of Granada.