News

Cascais, Portugal, 1 April 2019. Degrees, PhDs, and research initiatives are essential tools for supporting the implementation of an inclusive economy, but despite the rise in numbers of university graduates across the Euro-Mediterranean region, youth unemployement remains a regional challenge. One of the reasons for high levels of unemployment for Mediterranean youth is a persistent gap between the skills acquired at universities and the requirements of business. More than 32 percent of Enterprises in some Southern Mediterranean Countries have identified labor skill levels as a major constraint to hiring [1]. Despite significant resources being invested in specialised training programmes, young… read more

Ahead of the 4th UfM Ministerial Meeting on Employment and Labour, the UfM endorses initiatives to promote blue and sustainable economic growth in order to improve livelihood and create jobs Brussels, 28 March 2019. The Senior Officials of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) endorsed today two new regional projects to contribute to the transition towards sustainable, low-carbon and climate-resilient development (Clima-Med) and on encouraging the development of skills, knowledge and research in the field of Blue Economy (Blue Skills). The UfM will join forces for these projects with the European Union and Italian National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics… read more

The Mediterranean region has more than 25 million hectares of forests and about 50 million hectares of other wooded lands. Protected forest areas cover 9 million hectares, representing 4.3 percent of the region’s total surface area. The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and the Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) will launch a project to restore biodiversity in the Mediterranean through forest and landscape restoration, on 1 April at the 6th Mediterranean Forest week (Lebanon) Barcelona, 20 March 2019. The Mediterranean basin is the world’s second largest biodiversity hotspot: rich in plant diversity containing some 25 000-plant… read more

If nothing is changed by 2050, water-related issues with an impact on agriculture, health, and incomes could lower the GDP of the Middle East and North Africa region by 6-14%[1]. 3 out of 4 jobs worldwide are water-dependent [2], yet 50 million jobs should be created in the next decade to absorb the growing labour supply in the Mediterranean region. The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) has led the development of a regional Water Agenda and a financial strategy to help achieve access to water for all. Barcelona, 19 March 2019. The Mediterranean region is one of the 25 “hotspots” impacted… read more

Barcelona, 18 March 2019. The Secretary General of the UfM, Nasser Kamel, met today with Fakhry Alhazaimeh, the Executive President of the Agadir Technical Unit (ATU) responsible for the Trade Technical issues related to the Arab Mediterranean Free Trade Agreement (Agadir Agreement). The UfM Secretary General Kamel highlighted the importance and the opportunities of trade liberalization between the Mediterranean partners. He encouraged to continue the positive efforts among the members of the Agadir Agreement in terms of south-south and south-north trade integration, which also lead to the political decision to enlarge the membership of the Agreement to two additional members,… read more

Around 2 billion people around the globe work informally, most of them in emerging and developing countries, including a 68.8% in the Arab World. The absolute majority of these workers do not enjoy social protection, rights at work or decent working conditions, which seriously hampers the sustainable and inclusive development efforts on the ground. Most people end up in the informal economy not out of choice, but out of need in the absence of any other viable and decent alternative that would protect their rights in a properly-functioning labour market. The UfM Secretariat joins the regional and global efforts aiming… read more

The Action Plan on UfM Cooperation on fight against Piracy and Counterfeiting is one of the important deliverables of the UfM Ministerial Conference on Trade, held last year in Brussels Intellectual Property-intensive sectors account for 42% of the European Union’s Gross Domestic Product, worth €5.7 trillion and generates 38% of all jobs About 5% of all good imported into the European Union are counterfeit or pirated, which is equivalent to €85 billion in illegal trade The UfM Secretariat is actively engaged in promoting trade in the UfM Region, given the very low economic integration levels, specially amongst the southern Mediterranean… read more

Paris, 6 March 2019. The Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), Nasser Kamel, met today with the members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the French National Assembly, following an invitation by Marielle de Sarnez, Chair of the Committee. During the meeting, Secretary General Kamel presented the recent activities and initiatives developed and supported by the UfM, underlining the role of the organisation in a rapidly evolving regional context, while emphasizing the need to reinforce regional cooperation. He provided an update on UfM region-wide agendas on women’s empowerment and water as well as on the role and… read more

UfM country representatives and experts from the region are currently developing a mechanism to monitor the progress made on women’s rights, evaluate gender gaps and provide recommendations to policymakers. Women’s emporwement is a UfM priority working area. The organisation is currently promoting region-wide cooperation projects on women’s entrepreunership, health, gender equality, fight against gender violence and prevention of extremism. A regional research study on the role of women and youth in preventing violent extremism will be released next April as a complement of the UfM-labelled project “Enhancing the civic and social engagement of women and youth in preventing violence and… read more

26-27 February 2019, Seville. The Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), Nasser Kamel,  participated in the 10th Plenary Session of the Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly, which took place in Seville on the 26th and 27th February. The annual gathering of the Assembly of regional and local authorities of the Euro-Mediterranean region (ARLEM) focused its debates on two main topics, “Governance and Transparency” and “Youth Entrepreneurship in the Mediterranean”, with the presentation and approval of two reports on those important subjects. UfM Secretary General, Nasser Kamel, presented the members of ARLEM with an overview of the activities,… read more