The UfM: an action-driven organisation with a common ambition

Special attention is given to promoting sustainable, green, low-carbon and circular resource-efficient economies as well as to reversing the dramatic loss of biodiversity in the Mediterranean region.

Fragmentation in the region has grown in the past years and the gap between the Northern and the Southern Mediterranean countries has widened. Efforts must be focused on the crucial challenges of employment, mainly for young people, as well as on the important issue of investment, in order to tackle this domain’s obstacles. Investing in the region’s human capital and vast natural resources is key to it reaching its full potential and increasing regional trade following the pandemic.

Leaving no one behind and guaranteeing inclusive socio-economic development in the region continues to be a priority for UfM member states. Particular attention is given to narrowing the gender gap to ensure equal rights and opportunities, empowering young people, and creating more space for civil society.

In a digital, global and hyper-connected world, integrating new technologies into businesses and education systems is no longer a matter of choice, but a necessity to keep up and adapt to innovation and competition. This tendency was exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic, which evidenced the digital access and use divide within the Euro-Mediterranean region. The UfM strives to use digitalisation to bolster a smart, innovative and sustainable economic development, which will facilitate trade and could become an essential tool to tackle youth unemployment.

Since the launch of the Barcelona Process, civil protection has been at the heart of Euro-Mediterranean cooperation. With an increasing number of forest fires, floods, earthquakes, marine pollution, pandemics, and other catastrophes that are often attributed to climate change, civil protection collaboration among UfM member states enjoys high levels of political support. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted the need to build stronger regional civil protection mechanisms and networks whose resource and knowledge sharing will benefit not only countries on a national level but rather the region as a whole.