The Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), Nasser Kamel, said, on Thursday 16 May, that his organisation had done “remarkable” things over the past 10 years, all the while calling for further efforts.
“What the UfM has achieved today is both remarkable and inspiring”, he stressed in the introduction to the UfM's 2018 Annual Report, which also marks the organisation’s10th anniversary.
“The UfM Secretariat has been actively engaged in coordinating the efforts of its Member States and relevant actors in the Euro-Mediterranean region through a collective and multi-stakeholder approach to promote regional cooperation and integration”, he said, citing for example concrete results in socio-economic development, transport, urban development, energy, climate action, water resources management and the environment.
This progress is all the more significant because it has been made in a “volatile regional context against a backdrop of environmental degradation, elevated unemployment rates, socio-economic disparities, irregular migration, extremism, and an unprecedented refugee crisis, among other adversities”.
But according to Mr Kamel, “we remain far from achieving the mission of the UfM in a way that corresponds to our ambitions”. “The path remains long and arduous and requires further diligent efforts, as well as a renewed commitment to cooperation and multilateralism”, he warned.
He concluded: “Only together can we reach our goals of a peaceful, stable and prosperous Mediterranean”.
See the report: https://bit.ly/2Jnghyb. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)