The South EU Summit highlights the role of the UfM as key partner to promote dialogue and convert challenges into opportunities in the Mediterranean

14 June 2019, Valletta. The 6th South EU Summit -also referred to as Southern EU Countries Summit-, which was hosted in Malta’s capital city of Valletta, underlined the need for multilateral efforts for a positive Mediterranean agenda based on human and sustainable development. The final declaration highlighted the role of the UfM as a key partner to “promote dialogue and convert challenges into opportunities” as well as achieve “a peaceful, stable and prosperous Mediterranean region”.

The South EU Summit gathered heads of State of France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, and the hosting nation, Malta, and picked up from where the last summit in January left off, with talks focusing on the major issues currently facing the Mediterranean– chief among them being climate change, migration and the digital revolution challenges.

For the EU heads of State, “common problems require common solutions in the spirit of co-ownership and the achievement of win-win solutions” as they “look forward to the upcoming Sommet des Deux Rives to be held in Marseille on 23- 24 June 2019”. The UfM will be a key partner of the Summit of the Two Shores, in its role of platform for regional cooperation, bringing together all the European Union and Mediterranean countries.

The South EU Summit was first piloted in Athens over two years ago, in September 2016. Bringing together the premiers of the 7 EU Countries– jointly representing close to 40 percent of the total EU population and GDP, along with half of its coastline – the Summit has evolved into a perennial gathering amongst Southern European government leaders, leveraging similarities across Member States to present a united front on various economic, geopolitical, and policy objectives. Since 2016, summits followed in Lisbon, Madrid and Rome, with the last held in Nicosia earlier this year.

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On 10 April, 2017: 3rd Southern EU Countries Summit: “UfM plays a central role in the consolidation of Euro-Mediterranean regional cooperation”