Unleashing the potential of the Mediterranean

By Imad Fakhoury and Johannes Hahn

The challenges faced by the countries in the Mediterranean and by their neighbours dominate media headlines and public debates: instability and conflict, youth unemployment, the continued impact of the economic downturn, increasing numbers of people migrating in search for a better or safer life.

They overshadow the potential the region offers for economic growth and prosperity to its citizens, and make us forget the many strands of action that are available to unleash its potential.

As co-presidencies of the Union for the Mediterranean, we are convinced that making this potential accessible to the citizens of the region — old and young, men and women — cannot happen on a country by country basis only. On the contrary, we need to act together in a coordinated way at the level of the region to unleash it.

This was the ambitious agenda that we pursued when we brought together the 43 ministers of cooperation, planning or finance of countries north and south of the Mediterranean to meet for the first ever Union for the Mediterranean ministerial meeting on regional cooperation and planning in Jordan, on 2 June.

Close cooperation and progressive integration of markets has brought prosperity and with it stability to Europe.

Today, 95 per cent of trade in the Euro-Mediterranean region takes place inside the EU, but only 4 per cent between the EU and its southern Mediterranean partners and a marginal 1 per cent only within the MENA region.

Improved transportation, communication and trade integration could allow increasing trade and investment opportunities and thus economic growth and employment for the region.

Improved regional cooperation can bring tangible benefits for people.

We face similar challenges in relation to our youth, and need forceful action relating to their education and employment opportunities.

We share the challenges as regards connectivity and secure access to energy supplies — areas crucial for our prosperity and stability on both sides of the Mediterranean.

New critical areas such as migration and security also require regional responses. 

The discussions on June 2 were the logical next step on the path outlined in a number of more specialised UfM meetings held in the past few years on sectors of common interest such as transport, energy, private sector development and environment.

The prime objective is to help ensure that adequate funding is available for these regional priorities and common challenges.

We need to bring together all strands of existing cooperation instruments and tools funded by different partners and increase the attention paid to projects of shared regional interest.

We must also ensure that, for example, the private sector, in particular banks and civil society, are involved in our cooperation efforts. They add an array of competences and resources to the traditional tools of cooperation, which will allow multiplying their effects.

From the EU side, the policy that frames our relations with the MENA region, the European Neighbourhood Policy, allows for important support to be channelled to regional cooperation.

Following its revision in 2015, the meeting was an opportunity to see where we go together next.

Created in 2008, the Union for the Mediterranean has evolved into a unique platform for policy dialogue and promotion of strategic projects for the region.

Imad Fakhoury is minister of planning and international cooperation. Johannes Hahn is EU commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations. They contributed this article to The Jordan Times.