Regional Cooperation Neighbourhood South

On 27 January, EU Member States, IFIs, EU Delegations, Line DGs, the UfMS and DG NEAR came together to discuss the next steps in the design of the regional Team Europe Initiative on “Jobs through trade and investment”. The TEI tackles decent employment in the Southern Neighbourhood, a region with challenges both on demand and supply side of labour. It covers 3 thematic pillars: (i) sustainable trade and investment; (ii) vocational training & skills; (iii) inclusive entrepreneurship. The meeting allowed to firstly present the mapping of ongoing interventions– the cumulative budget amounts to EUR 4 billion with 29 regional programmes and 79 bilateral programmes. Secondly, a draft Joint Intervention Logic was presented. It will allow the development of joint objectives and indicators, that will facilitate monitoring and evaluation. Lastly, emphasis was placed on strategic communications in order to ensure that target audiences in the region understand the benefit of the TEI’s collaborative model. A launch event will be planned for the months to come. Stay tuned!

“With the objective to foster a common Mediterranean identity and increase the visibility and ownership of regional cooperation”, the 28th of November was declared as the Day of the Mediterranean during the 5th UfM Regional Forum in November 2020. Coinciding with the date of the Barcelona Declaration, the Day of the Mediterranean was conceived “provide the opportunity to hold cultural events across the region with a view to strengthening ties, promoting intercultural exchanges and dialogue and embracing the diversity of the region.”

On October 27, 2021, during the Cairo Water Week 2021, WES had the opportunity to disseminate the early lessons learned in the field of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) by its DEMO projects in Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Morocco, Tunisia. WES and its DEMO project partners, presented innovative technologies, processes and methods used to addressing different aspects of water management challenges in both urban and rural areas.

The review of the 2021 work carried out by WES allowed all Partner Countries, institutional and other stakeholders to assess a number of characteristics of this EU funded Project. Its relevance and good response to the demands of the PCs, the quality of its deliverables and, in many cases, its innovative approaches, have been repeatedly recognised. What is becoming now, under the COVID-19 pandemic, even more evident, is its contribution to enhancing the feeling of “belonging” and ownership through cooperation and synergies among all key Mediterranean players, including the UfM, the Barcelona Convention/UNEP-MAP/MCSD, and Initiatives such as the Cairo Water Week, etc., and a large number of organisations involved in the design and implementation of projects such as the WES DEMOs. This synergy-catalyst character of WES is the result of close working relationships and mutual confidence with all parties involved and coherent approaches facilitating and assisting, discretely, in various ways all worthy initiatives throughout a series of successful projects/previous phases: Horizon 2020 CB/MEP; SWIM SM; SWIM-H2020 SM leading to WES. The recently approved WES Workplan for 2022 allows for the continuation of this function and for further expanding the synergies and conditions for the constructive atmosphere and the much-needed cooperation in our region.