Secretary General participates in the 40th Meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation in Sofia
28 June 2019, Sofia. The Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), Nasser Kamel, participated today in the 40th Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), held in Sofia at the end of the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office of that regional organization.
Secretary General Kamel highlighted the important role of cooperation platforms in addressing regional challenges, through the definition of a common agenda and by creating a multiplier factor that allows for better projects and bigger positive impacts to be achieved. At this regard, the Secretary General reiterated that the objective of the UfM “is always the enhancement of the living conditions of our citizens” and that, through its actions and initiatives, the UfM wants to have a positive impact on the development of regional integration, on the promotion of stability and growth and on the improvement of socio-economic conditions of the peoples of the Euro-Mediterranean region.
The UfM maintains close relations with BSEC, with whom it signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2015. Given the respective missions and areas of cooperation, as well as the geographic overlapping of their focus areas, the two organizations are deeply committed to the reinforcement of cooperation and creation of synergies between their respective work programmes.
The 40th Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of BSEC was also the occasion for the Secretary General of the UfM to maintain working meetings with the Secretary General of BSEC, Michael Christides, and the President of the Black Sea Trade and Cooperation Bank, Dmitry Pankin. SG Kamel further had the opportunity to thank the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria for the excellent cooperation that the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office of the BSEC developed with the UfM and reinterred to the upcoming Chairmanship, to be held by Greece, the availability and engagement of the UfM to strengthen the cooperation ties between our two organizations.
