The UfM Regional Platform on Employment and Labour convenes its 14th meeting

14 – 15 March 2023, Nice. The Member States of the Union for the Mediterranean held the 14^th meeting of the UfM Regional Platform on Employment and Labour in Nice, France, as part of the Roadmap implementing the Declaration of the 5th UfM Ministerial on Employment and Labour that took place in Marrakech on 17-18 May 2022.

The meeting of the Platform was chaired by the UfM Co-Presidency: the European Commission  (DG EMPL) and Jordan (Ministry of Labour), and the discussions covered the following areas:

• Youth Employment: there was a session dedicated to youth employment, during which the state of play and next steps for the UfM Community of Practice on Youth Employment in the Southern Mediterranean were presented. The session also counted with the representation of two members of this CoP, Lamia Chaffai from Tunisia and Hanan Elguindy from Egypt, who shared their views on the exercise.
• Women Economic Empowerment: following the data concerning the gender digital divide within the Euro-Mediterranean region, there was a presentation on the UfM activities on STEM for economic empowerment for women and girls as part of the implementation of the Road Map for Action 2023-2025 foreseen by the Ministerial Declaration on Strengthening the Role of Women in Society, officially adopted on 26 October 2022.
• Skills: discussions evolved around the preparations for the “High-level Meeting on Skills in the Mediterranean” with a focus on the European Alliance for Apprenticeships; and Pillar 2 of the Regional Team Europe Initiative “Jobs through Trade and Investment”, wherein DG NEAR held a presentation on the key pillars and principles of the Regional TEI and the main objectives and expected results of pillar 2 with the countries.

The meeting also counted with a brief presentation by Sweden – in their capacity as President of the Council of the European Union, as well as a presentation about the the Economic Development Strategy of the Metropole Nice Cote d’Azur. Moreover, the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMED) shared the results of the survey “Towards more social justice and inclusiveness in the Mediterranean.”

The UfM Member States agreed to hold the 15^th meeting of the UfM Regional Platform on Employment and Labour in Berlin, Germany, during the last quarter of 2023.