From coordination to joint action: the UfM hosts the annual coordination meeting of regional organisations

The Union for the Mediterranean hosted the annual coordination meeting of regional organisations on 13 November 2019, and called for increased synergies to tackle the pressing challenges faced in the Euro-Mediterranean region, notably the climate emergency which disproportionately affects the area.

Barcelona, 13 November 2019. The Union for the Mediterranean is an active member of the coordination group of intergovernmental organisations operating across the Euro-Mediterranean region. It hosted on Wednesday 13 November its 2019 Annual Meeting, with the aim of guaranteeing the complementarity of their work and the pursue of their mutual objectives with better results and greater impacts. Representatives of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), the Central European Initiative (CEI), the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS), and the Adriatic and Ionian Initiative (AII), took part of the meeting.

In the face of the climate emergency that is affecting the Euro-Mediterranean region, the UfM Secretariat took this opportunity to give a special focus to the identification of joint actions and initiatives in the field of Climate Action.

“The cost of inaction has become too steep. Global warming knows no borders, so neither should climate action. Urgent action is needed, and it is needed now.” added UfM Secretary General Mr Nasser Kamel during his welcome speech to Ambassadors Maira Mora (CBSS), Selim Yenel (BSEC) and Fabio Pigliapoco (AII), as well as CEI’s Deputy Secretary-General Ms Nina Kodelja and advisors Ms Lidija Arsova (CEI) and Ms Vitore Muzhani (AII).

During the meeting, Mr Grammenos Mastrojeni, UfM Deputy Secretary General for Energy and Climate Action highlighted the MedECC report’s preliminary findings that were presented at the fourth UfM Regional Forum held last month, and outlined the five main lines of the UfM action in fighting climate change (advocacy and awareness raising, bringing climate funding to local communities, enhancing transparency in UNFCCC’s nationally-determined contributions (NDCs), creating science-policy interfaces and several sectoral approaches).

Representatives from CBSS, BSEC, CEI and AII presented their current activities within their climate portfolios, and agreed, together with the UfM Secretariat, to create a network of focal points, through which synergies will be speedily identified. They further recognized the need of working together on awareness-raising and on inviting other regional organisations operating in the wider Euro-Mediterranean region and beyond to join the initiative.

The next coordination meeting will be hosted by BSEC’s Permanent International Secretariat, in 2020 in Istanbul.