A Renewed Partnership for Developing Energy and Transport Infrastructure across the Mediterranean

19 January 2023. From 18:30 | Conference | English | IEMed

An oil platform is seen in the central Mediterranean Sea, October 7, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

Recent disruptive events, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine, with negative impacts on energy, raw materials, and food supplies, are causing important changes in the organization of production and thus on trade flows. De-globalization, with effects on global value chains, and re-shoring trends, however, also represent an opportunity for sustainable and inclusive economic development in the Mediterranean region. Indeed, economic flows in the region, especially North-South, remain below their potential because of limited connectivity and of the lack of adequate investment in infrastructure. To turn this into an opportunity, especially for the South and East of the Mediterranean basin, an upgrade of logistic facilities and an integration of supply chains is essential. This calls for a significant increase in international cooperation, with a leading role to be played by the European Union, also to agree upon common standards for infrastructure investment, private sector cooperation, and to support the role of development banks in their indispensable financial activity.

Carlo Secchi is vice-president of the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) since 2005 and Professor Emeritus of European Economic Policy at Bocconi University in Milan, where he was chancellor in the period 2000-2004 and full professor between 1983 and 2011. In July 2009 he was appointed as European coordinator for Infrastructural Priority Projects (TEN-T) between France, Spain and Portugal and since March 2014 he is the European coordinator for the Atlantic Core Network Corridor. He was a member of the European Parliament in 1994-1999, where he served as vice-president of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, a member of the Italian Senate in 1994-1996 and the Chairman of the Italian Group of the Trilateral Commission (2003-2016). He has been an advisor to various Italian and foreign research institutes, to Italian public Institutions and to the European Union.

Conference moderated by Sergio Rodríguez López-Ros, Deputy Rector for Institutional Affairs, Universitat Abat Oliba – CEU. Co-organised by the IEMed as part of the Aula Mediterrània 2022-23 programme in collaboration with the Master’s in Logistic and International Trade, Universitat Abat Oliba – CEU.

This conference takes place at the IEMed conference room, Girona, 20 – Barcelona and it can also be followed on IEMed Youtube Channel.