What Prospects for the 5+5 Dialogue in a Mediterranean in Transformation? Adapting Together to the Post-COVID-19 Realities

13 October 2021- 14 October 2021. From 12:00 To 13:30 | Conference | English | Madrid

REUTERS/Adrees Latif

Since its inception in May 2016, the MedThink 5+5 network of think tanks of the Western Mediterranean has organised four annual fora, during which experts from the whole of the region were able to analyse the factors underpinning security and stability, as well as economic, human and sustainable development in the Western Mediterranean. The last forum was held in Malta on 1-2 July 2019 under the title: “Fostering Innovative Alliances in the Western Mediterranean: A Basin of Opportunities for a Sustainable Future”.

The MedThink 5+5 also organises thematic seminars on specific topics, the lasts of which focused on issues such as health cooperation, the post-COVID-19 economic recovery, and women’s economic participation in the Western Mediterranean. These thematic seminars provide a multidisciplinary platform of debate, contributing both to strengthening the network and to the regional integration based on a bottom-up approach.
In the context of the 2021 Spanish co-presidency of the 5+5 Dialogue and drawing on the Tunis Declaration adopted at the 16th Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the 5+5 Dialogue on 22 October 2020, the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) are jointly organising the 5th annual forum of the MedThink 5+5 network in partnership with Casa Árabe in Madrid, Spain.

The forum entitled “What prospects for the 5+5 Dialogue in a Mediterranean in transformation?” tackles three important transformations likely to impact the future of the Western Mediterranean: 1) the transformation of the production model; 2) the digital transition; 3) the sustainability transition. While these challenges have been gradually gaining a foothold in the region, their relevance has been considerably reaffirmed as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. Indeed, the pandemic has revealed the scope of the shortcomings of our socioeconomic systems, highlighting in turn the need to move towards shorter and integrated supply chains, a digital economy, and a sustainable development, to improve the resilience in the face of future crises. Within each of these three transformations, the event outlines avenues for reflection on opportunities for sectoral cooperation in the framework of the 5+5 Dialogue, echoing the Commitments for a new ambition in the Mediterranean of the Summit of the Two Shores in June 2019 in Marseille, as well as the priorities reflected in the “New Agenda for the Mediterranean” released by the EU High Representative and the European Commission in February 2021.