Barcelona, 26/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - At the opening of the Euro-Mediterranean conference on women, in Barcelona on Wednesday 26 March, the secretary general of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), Fathallah Sijilmassi, was pleased to note the strong mobilisation of states and civil society around the theme of strengthening the role of the organisation in societies - in particular, in order to guarantee equal opportunities as regards employment. The conference - Women's socio-economic empowerment - is being organised in the wake of the ministerial conference in Paris last September, which made a series of practical recommendations that the Barcelona conference aims to implement. A follow-up mechanism needs to be set up.
“Among graduates looking for employment in the Mediterranean, women are one and a half times as numerous as men”, said Sijilmassi. It is now time to move on to the concrete, said Jordan's Minister for Social Development Reem Abu Hassan, whose country is co-president of the UfM. Work will focus inter alia on: - the search for a regional approach; - stronger involvement of actors from the southern shores of the Mediterranean; - increasing operational activities; - and networking for a greater exchange of information and inter-relations. The growing involvement of Norway in Euro-Mediterranean policy should also be highlighted. Norway is increasingly involved in the financing of civil society projects and a financing convention will be signed during the conference - despite the fact that Norway is not a member of the UfM. (FB)