UfM Foreign Affairs Ministers call for greater efforts to foster regional integration and sustainable development

Barcelona, 10 October 2019. The Foreign Affairs Ministers of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) agreed today on the need to prioritize the actions of the UfM and to particularly focus the work in the coming year on environment and climate change, trade, investment promotion, job creation and economic cooperation, including digital economy and infrastructure connectivity.
Ministers recognized the UfM as a unique space for dialogue in the Euro-Mediterranean region to focus on common, concrete projects overcoming political obstacles. They acknowledged the efforts made in the past years to implement the Roadmap for Action adopted in 2017.
The regularity of this Regional Forum for four consecutive years has made it the main gathering for constructive discussion on Euro-Mediterranean integration, providing a robust continuation of the Barcelona Process’ principles and goals. In fact, 2020 will mark the 25^th anniversary of this historic process initiated in 1995.
Participants in the Regional Forum particularly commended the ability of the organisation to create science-policy interfaces to tackle urgent challenges. This year’s edition gathered scientists, policymakers, and key experts to discuss the main conclusions of the first-ever scientific assessment report on the impact of climate and environmental change in the Mediterranean.

Since 2015, a network of more than 80 scientists from across the region (MedECC) has been developing the report with the aim to facilitate more effective policy responses to climate change. Among its main conclusions, the report shows that the Mediterranean basin warms 20% faster than the global average, and that the region is one of the main climate change hotspots in the world, where 250 million people are projected to be considered “water poor” within 20 years. With current policies, temperatures are expected to increase by 2.2ºC (compared to pre-industrial level) by 2040 (See main conclusions from the report).

“No single nation, no single community, in our region has enough resources to cope with the pace of climate change on its own. Undeniably, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, our common efforts in the next decade have to focus on facing this urgent issue that goes way beyond climate change and implies reconsidering our approach to the region’s limited resources”, UfM Secretary General Nasser Kamel underlined.

To date, the UfM has convened over 20 ministerial meetings and worked on 59 regional projects worth more than €5.5 billion, ranging from sustainable development initiatives and urban infrastructure projects to initiatives fostering gender equality, entrepreneurship and job creation. Furthermore, 15 regional platforms have been established, bringing together over 30 000 stakeholders from across the region to share views and launch initiatives on these key sectors. This had direct tangible results, especially on young people, women and entrepreneurs.

The Regional Forum was co-chaired by Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission, and Ayman Safadi, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of Jordan, hosted by the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of Spain, Josep Borrell, and the Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean, Nasser Kamel.