Vienna, 21/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - The Experts Committee of the Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership (FEMIP) managed by the European Investment Bank met up in Vienna in preparation for the conference of Euro-Mediterranean finance ministers on the 25-26 June in Tunis. In this perspective, experts adopted a series of recommendations for improving the business climate in the region and attracting more direct investment from abroad. EIB Vice President Philippe de Fontaine Vive affirmed that the objective was also to “provide a dynamic to local private initiatives and help set up Small and Medium-sized Enterprises”. The Experts Committee also proposed strengthening the Mediterranean energy markets, based on incentives for renewable energies and energy efficiency. According to the EIB “we cannot envisage sustainable development, economic growth and social stability at all, without finding common solutions to energy challenges,” and the development of the private sector and a Euro-Mediterranean free-trade zone “will not bear fruit unless we forge a Euro-Mediterranean energy community”. Mr Fontaine Vive said that energy questions can, if they are not well managed, “become a serious danger to peace and stability”. However, he recognised that energy production and the development of the private sector required large-scale investment and had a significant impact on growth, social welfare, the environment and human health.
According to the forecasts made in Vienna, FEMIP had already helped to fund “two very important studies” on “developing projects related to renewable energies and energy efficiency” and on “activities involving the financing of the coal markets and carbon trading in the Mediterranean region”. These studies will help identify concrete projects that FEMIP could help elaborate and fund.