The UfM Secretariat joins forces with the European Commission to promote public-private dialogue in the Mediterranean countries

Barcelona. – Upon the hosting of the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean, the European Commission (DG ENTER and TAIEX) organised a technical workshop on the dimension 7 of the Euro-Mediterranean Charter for the Enterprise, which is Public-Private Dialogue. During two days 50 representatives from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Palestinian Authority and Lebanon discussed how to improve public-private dialogue in their countries by holding various dialogues and looking at good experiences from both the Southern and the Northern countries of the Mediterranean. High level representatives from Ministries of Enterprise, private business associations from the North and the South of the Mediterranean gathered to assess the progress in the field of Public-Private Dialogue based upon 5 indicators. The examples of Sweden, Luxemburg and Catalonia served as best practices on public-private dialogue in the North.

The European Commission, specifically through the Directorate General for Industry and Enterprise, is responsible for the implementation and revision –together with the OECD and ETF- of the progress achieved under the Euro-Mediterranean Charter for the Enterprise, which was adopted by the competent Ministerial Conference back in 2004, in all its 11 dimensions.

Deputy Secretary General Lino Cardarelli, stated that: “The participation of civil society -consumers, private entrepreneurs, employees, citizens and community groups, etc. – in designing public policy is critical if the state and the government are to improve the transparency, quality and effectiveness of their policies, thereby consolidating their legitimacy”. He also added that: “Private firms and the business community -who, it is now recognised, play a crucial role in the creation of national wealth- obviously have an interest in being involved in economic policy making”. In this regard, he emphasized that: “Development partners, who have recently put greater emphasis on private sector growth, have been more and more stressing the need to foster a genuine policy dialogue between the authorities and the business community in developing countries in order to improve public policies”. And he concluded that: “A growing interest of multilateral and bilateral aid donors in encouraging interaction between government and private sector in the region is evident.”