With a budget of €11 million, the UfM Hub for Jobs, Trade and Investment will contribute to employment promotion, the integration of Southern Mediterranean countries into regional value chains in goods and services, as well as to trade facilitation and sustainable investments in the region. Every third young person in the Southern Mediterranean is unemployed, while only every fifth woman in MENA countries participates in the labour market. Marrakech, 18 May 2022. On occasion of the 5th UfM Ministerial on Employment and Labour in Marrakech, the UfM Secretariat signed today a Joint Declaration of Intent with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Development… read more
The UfM Regional Platform on Trade and Investment convened its second meeting in 2021 by videoconference. 16 December 2021. The 42 Member States of the Union for the Mediterranean convened today by videoconference for the second meeting of the UfM Regional Platform on Trade and Investment. They followed up on the planned work agreed upon at the previous meeting in July 2021, encompassing three main pillars of Sustainable Trade, Sustainable Investment and Regional Integration, along the lines of the Joint Declaration by UfM Trade Ministers of November 2020. The meeting of the platform was chaired by the UfM Co-Presidency, the… read more
30 November and 1st December 2021. In collaboration with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), a UfM Practical Educational Workshop on “e-governance” was implemented by the Estonian ICT Cluster for the benefit of Mauritania in a hybrid format on 30th November and 1st December 2021. The third in a series of UfM e-governance Workshops organized throughout 2021 as a follow-up to the outcomes of the UfM Conference on “Digital Transformation and Digital Skills for the Future” held in Tallinn (Estonian Capital), on 30 September 2019, this tangible initiative aimed to provide an opportunity for best practices sharing on digitalization as well… read more
29 and 30 September 2021: The UfM Practical Educational Workshop on ´´e-governance´´ in Palestine was organized digitally on 29 and 30 September, in collaboration with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, GIZ, and the Estonian ICT Cluster, as a tangible initiative towards strengthening UfM-Palestine cooperation ties. This Workshop is the second in a series of UfM e-governance Workshops intended for the interested Southern Mediterranean Countries as follow-up to the conclusions of the UfM Conference on ´´Digital Transformation and Digital Skills for the Future´´ held in Tallinn (Estonian Capital), exactly two years ago, on 30 September 2019. Bringing together participants form various… read more
The UfM Regional Platform on Industrial Cooperation convened on 20th September 2021, bringing together, in addition to the EU and Jordanian UfM Co-presidencies as well as the UfM Secretariat, representatives of Embassies, SBA coordinators and Senior Officials in charge of industrial cooperation from the UfM Member States. In their opening remarks, Ms Outi SLOTBOOM, Director for Strategy and conomic Analysis, DG GROW, and Mr Zaher AL-QATARNEH, Deputy Secretary General for Technical Affairs and Director for the Foreign Trade Policy, Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply, of Jordan, highlighted the negative effects of the pandemic crisis on the economic level, thus… read more
The 2021 Creative Forum, hosted by the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU and organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia, in collaboration with the UfM, took place from 12th until 15th of September in Ljubljana. Under the slogan Future Unlocked, the event gathered creative entrepreneurs and policymakers of the Euro-Mediterranean region to highlight the unique contribution of cultural and creative sectors to peace and stability. Ljubljana, 12-15 September 2021. The third edition of Creative Forum, which constitutes a unique High-level event fully dedicated to the promotion of Creative economy in the Mediterranean region, took place… read more
The UfM Secretariat, with the support of the German Development Cooperation, fulfills the call of the UfM Trade Ministers on their 11th Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Trade Ministers Conference of 10 November 2020 on the organization of trainings and technical assistance for ministries, customs authorities and businesses on the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention of Rules of Origin, in order to enhance the capacities of those actors and thereby increase the benefits of the respective trade agreements.” 29 July 2021. The UfM Secretariat, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Egypt and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)… read more
14 July 2021. The Member States of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) convened by videoconference in a meeting of the UfM Regional Platform on Trade and Investment (formerly known as the UfM Trade Senior Officials Meeting), chaired by teh UfM Co-Presidency of the European Commission and Jordan. The meeting followed up on the 11th UfM Trade Ministers Conference held in November 2020, and agreed a Work Programme for the coming period focused around three main pillars: Sustainable Trade: participants reviewed the EU Trade Policy Review, the main findings of a study for an ex-post evaluation of the trade… read more
The UfM promotes social dialogue between representatives of employers, workers and governments as a prerequisite to meaningful post-pandemic recovery in the region. With the economic difficulties facing private sector worldwide, and the slowing of employment and labour progress caused by the pandemic, there is a risk of neglecting such social dialogues in the short term. Enhancing the skills of the workforce must be a critical part of effective dialogue between all parties involved. Barcelona, 8 July 2021. The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) today held a conference on “Social Dialogue with Social Partners” together with BUSINESSMED, the European Training Foundation… read more
30 June 2021, Barcelona. The Conference of the Governors of Mediterranean Central Banks took place online on 28 June 2021. Organised by the Banco de España, the Central Bank of Tunisia, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), the conference tackled the recovery from the COVID-19 crisis across the Euro-Mediterranean area and a sustainable, inclusive, green and digital development agenda. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments across the Mediterranean to take severe measures to curtail socioeconomic activities, which has caused a substantial economic slowdown in many countries of the region. In… read more
