Presentation of the first results of “Mediterranean 2030” consortium at the Mediterranean Talks

On 25 and 26 May 2010, the new edition of the Mediterranean Talks “For a common vision of the Mediterranean : strategy, projects and funding” took place in Tunis, in partnership with the IEMED and the IACE. The opening session, focusing on the region’s future, presented a plausible vision of the regional area in 2030 – greater integration and a source of sustainable and responsible growth – by presenting significant trends and break points as well as the long-term challenges, particularly economic, in different specific domains like food security and rural development, employment and human capital, energy and climate change and mobility and migration. This round table was also the occasion for presenting regional scenarios imagined by the consortium and for sharing experiences from businesspeople from both shores who have already invested in the region.

A document, realized for the Heads of State and Government of the UfM, proposes a global vision of the region by pointing out the Euro-Mediterranean complementarities (demographic synergie, natural resources, values) as well as the challenges it faces (energy, food crisis, migratory). Finally, it proposes three scenarios and nine concrete propositions in order to achieve a more integrated region, with a high convergence dynamics :

-       The marginalization scenario : a convergence through the bottom, if current trends are pursued.

-       The divergence scenario: a disparate insertion in the world economy, a more threatening scenario than the marginalization one.

-       The scenario of convergence through the top, which requires a voluntarist political action shared by all the actors of the Mediterranean region.