Regional Cooperation Neighbourhood South

In Lisbon, on 5-6 June, participants from the whole Mediterranean region gathered on the occasion of the UfM Regional Platform on Water, hosted by the Portuguese Ministry of Environment.

120 public officials and private sector, institutional, and civil society representatives as well as journalists convened for a two-day Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and Office of the Commissioner for Gender Equality of Cyprus event to assess the economic empowerment of women, gender-just responses to the climate crisis, violence against women and girls, and gender inequality in the media across the Euro-Mediterranean region.

Municipalities are essential in implementing climate action in the Southern Neighbourhood. To build their capacities in addressing climate risks, they gathered for a three-day workshop in Jordan in the framework of the Clima-Med regional programme.

In spite of the dire security situation and the many difficulties faced by Palestinian municipalities, their commitment to climate action remains as they gathered for a Clima-Med workshop in Amman.

In the framework of Euromed Police, CEPOL organised the Heads of Law Enforcement Training Institutes Conference on 3-4 June in Lisbon. The conference aimed to draw attention to the importance of enhancing the skills and resources of law enforcement officials in order to address evolving security threats. The conference focused on the innovative solutions that greater public-private partnerships can offer and on the opportunities and challenges of Artificial Intelligence in law enforcement.

More than three years after the launch of the New Agenda for the Mediterranean, the IEMed, in the framework of the project EuroMeSCo: Connecting the Dots, delivered a survey of experts in the Euro-Mediterranean region to contribute to the reflections related to the future of the ENP. Results are out!

In the framework of the Young Researchers Lab of the project EuroMeSCo: Connecting the Dots, a series of policy briefs written by young researchers on the topics of climate change and energy has been published.

The Open Budget Survey is back, featuring results for Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, and Tunisia, and including a pilot in Libya.

On 10 June, the MED-GEM (Mediterranean Green Electrons and Molecules) Network with DG NEAR organised a high-level training session on the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) in Brussels. DG NEAR and the MED-GEM Network introduced the hybrid event that was attended by national focal points and country correspondents from the MED-GEM Network, but also key representatives from renewable energy industry representatives, all together more than 60 participants online from both shores of the Mediterranean.

On 11 June, the MED-GEM (Mediterranean Green Electrons and Molecules) Network organised its second MED-GEM Industry Advisory Board meeting, involving some 50 clean energy industry stakeholders and policy makers from Southern Neighbourhood countries (all present except Algeria and Libya but including Mauritania), hosted by Hydrogen Europe in Brussels. The meeting allowed for discussions among European and Southern Neighbourhood stakeholders on recent developments in the renewable energy and renewable hydrogen sector and areas of mutual interest and possible trade of Green Electrons and Green Molecules.