Blog

Luxembourg,  26 October 2015 At existing growth rates, the MENA region will see at least 60 million new entrants to the labour market by 2025. Creating employment opportunities, in particular for young people, is thus a key priority for the Mediterranean countries’ governments and for their international partners. Actions to improve the entrepreneurship environment are particularly importantRead more

University of Milan-Bicocca, Milan, 14-16 October 2015 Around the world far too many young people are not in employment, education or training (NEET). Roughly one third of the world’s youth are unemployed, looking for work or they are discouraged and therefore inactive. Unemployment rates among young people are particularly high in the Middle East andRead more

• The Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean attended the 12th Meeting of Foreign Ministers, hosted in Tangier by the Kingdom of Morocco as Co-President of the 5+5 Dialogue. • 100,000 young people are benefiting directly from 16 of the 33 UfM-labelled projects in a region with almost 30% youth unemployment.  • TheseRead more

Luxembourg holds the Presidency of the Council of the EU for the second half of 2015. It is hosting an Informal Meeting of EU Ministers for Employment, their Maghreb (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) counterparts and key stakeholders to tackle youth unemployment, which is a major political, economic and social challenge in the region.
A Union for the Mediterranean Ministerial Meeting on Employment is expected to take place in 2016.

The Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and the Union of Mediterranean Confederations of Enterprises (Businessmed) signed an agreement to strengthen the private sector’s contribution to socio-economic development in the Mediterranean region.

UfM Secretariat Headquarters Barcelona, 2 – 5 June 2015 To ensure social inclusion, 5 million jobs need to be created every year in the European Neighborhood South Region. The largest reservoir of jobs remains the six millions micro-small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that account for 90% of total employment, but are not yet contributing their fullRead more

Athens, 27 May 2015 The Mediterranean region can tap further the potential of the blue economy. It can provide jobs and growth through the sustainable development of key strategic maritime sectors in this important sea basin. This can be promoted by increased clustering and networking of education and training organisations, pairing research and innovation capacity, matching supply/demandRead more

• Both institutions signed an official partnership agreement to cooperate in areas such as business development, women’s economic empowerment, energy, water, environment and climate change.
• The operational collaboration between UfM and UNIDO started in 2014 with the promotion of the project “Establishment of a regional platform for the Development of Cultural and Creative Industries and Clusters in the Southern Mediterranean”, aimed to foster entrepreneurial cooperation among the cultural and creative industries.

Barcelona, 2 April – The Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean held the second advisory board meeting of the Mediterranean initiative for jobs (Med4Jobs), a flagship initiative of the UfM to help increase the employability of youth and women, close the gap between labour demand and supply, and foster a culture of entrepreneurship andRead more

Maharat MED – Developing Youth Employability & Entrepreneurial Skills Economic Development and Employment Completed Labelled projects Context and objectives The Maharat MED project aimed to develop an entrepreneurial spirit in young people, transforming job seekers into job creators who are able to increase employment opportunities. Developed by the Business Development Centre (BDC) in Jordan and inRead more