The Euro-Mediterranean financial area

This document tackles the crucial issue of a Mediterranean financial area and how it should be organized to contribute to development in South and East Mediterranean Countries (SEMCs), including creating a regional bank that would collect local savings and direct them towards funding structuring projects.

The two authors begin with an observation that goes against numerous assumptions and clichés. They consider that rather than financial aid, the Southern Mediterranean, and more particularly the Maghreb, needs to collect and use local savings more efficiently. This means that any debate on this region should carry the conviction that “foreign investment is not the vector of all development” and that it is misguided to underline “the particular nature of each of the three countries”, which could thus each benefit from a specific measure.