Nevertheless, a few preliminary observations can be made:

• The World has gone through one of its oddest periods in modern times with close to 4 billion people locked down for two to three months: the hospitality industry, transport, tourism, leisure, sports, culture and so many more sectors were purely and simply halted. As if the World had frozen for many weeks.
• This has led to a global economic recession for 2020 coupled with a high degree of uncertainty for the speed of the recovery in 2021 and 2022. Public finances are under pressure in almost all countries. Unemployment is significantly on the rise.
• Global supply chains will come under increased scrutiny as countries and regions are more and more looking to rely on their internal domestic resilience and independence.
• Countries rediscovered the strategic value of the “care” sectors: education, health, food and environment.
• Multilateral governance is set to be redesigned in order to reassert its importance in a more balanced, inclusive and human sensible way.

In these circumstances, regional cooperation appears as an essential dimension for building stronger collective resilience in a given region.

The Covid-19 crisis is yet another illustration of the strategic need for countries in the Euro-Mediterranean-African region to work closely together.

In the last two decades, the Euro-Mediterranean-African region witnessed a number of critical moments which already made it clear that regional challenges do call for regional solutions: terrorists attacks, irregular migration crisis, financial crisis, conflicts, development gaps, youth unemployment and social unrest.

In this respect, Covid-19 does not appear as a disruption of a given reality but as an accelerator of a global trend.

Therefore, the Euro-Mediterranean-African region has a golden opportunity to design a new common future.

In this perspective, the Mediterranean – this European, African and Asian Sea- is more than ever at the center of these global evolutions. This reaffirmed centrality paves the way for a new vison for the region, one that would strengthen regional collective resilience and enable the whole region to contribute positively to peace, security and development in the World.

As we are commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Barcelona declaration, let us remain faithful to the core principles of peace and shared prosperity that were defined in 1995 and work to adapt the vision and its modus operandi to present circumstances through:

• Promoting political dialogue and cooperation with the support of existing institutions: within the framework of the European Union, the Union for the Mediterranean, the 5+5 Dialogue, the League of Arab States, the African Union, the Regional Economic Communities as well as with the support of the United Nations system, the WTO, the OECD etc. All of which are actively engaged in the region;
• Defining new priorities and/or consolidating actions in priorities already identified and which relevance is confirmed: education, health, food security, energy, mobilities and connectivity, digitalization and artificial intelligence, green, blue and circular economy;
• Relying more on the region’s assets in order to promote and scale up a positive agenda rather than an exclusive short-term vison limited to security related issues. Youth, women, civil society, universities, research and innovation, think tanks, private sector, local authorities, intercultural dialogue are areas where a great number of stakeholders are already active in building solidarity and action-oriented initiatives that constitute the fundamental core basis for this positive agenda.

The coincidence of the post Covid crisis with the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Barcelona Process is therefore a unique opportunity to open a new chapter for Euro-Mediterranean-African cooperation. 

Winston Churchill once said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste”. The Covid-19 crisis is a call for regional action. To this effect, the Union for the Mediterranean plays a pivotal role.