Launching meeting

So as to get this collaborative endeavour under way and jointly define the modalities of cooperation, IPEMED has organised, with the participation of the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, a launch meeting on 21 April 2009 in the Quai d’Orsay offices of the Ministry in Paris. Invitations to the meeting were send out to sixty or so Ministries and private and institutional foresight centres from all over the Mediterranean.

This meeting had two main aims :

-       First of all, it was a question of letting all participants express themselves in order to reach an agreement on a common and shared diagnosis on concrete subjects;
-       Secondly, our ambition was to encourage a strengthened cooperation between public and private foresight actors, to learn to work together and to elaborate concrete, operational and general interest projects on the main issues of the economic construction of the Mediterranean.


The meeting took place in two working sessions. In the first session, a number of national foresight bodies provided a brief overview of the foresight studies they have carried out, with a particular focus on:

-       The methodology used: participatory foresight or expert foresight; quantified foresight, scenario-based foresight, and/or centred on major challenges and risks;
-       The region’s major identified challenges for the future;
-       Vision on the country’s integration with its immediate or more distant neighbours (Middle East, Europe, Gulf States) and with the global system.

The second session was largely devoted to defining the modalities of collaboration on the Mediterranean 2030 foresight project. The discussions aimed at deciding on the methodology to be used and establishing the operational stages of the project.