The Diplomat in Spain

Nasser Kamel and Federica Mogherini./ Photo: UfM

The Diplomat. 11/07/2018

On Monday, the new secretary general of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), Nasser Kamel, met the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, to talk about the preparations of the organization’s 3^rd Regional Forum, which will take place on October 8 in Barcelona.

The Forum, the annual meeting of Foreign Ministers of the member States of the UfM, will be “an opportunity to make balance of these last ten years and discuss the future projections of work of the Union for the Mediterranean”, according to information provided by the institution.

During the meeting, Mogherini reaffirmed the support of the EU to the UfM and praised the work carried out by this institution to facilitate the practical cooperation between all the actors of the Mediterranean through, even, the celebration of sectorial ministerial meetings on crucial matters for the region.

For his part, Kamel thanked the “strong and continuous support” of the EU to the UfM, “the only institution that includes the European countries and those of the south of the Mediterranean to work together and on equal conditions”. “Before its tenth anniversary, it is time for a renewed dynamism and a regional commitment to strengthen the impact of the organization with a view to a more effective cooperation in the Euro-Mediterranean region”, the Egyptian diplomat concluded.

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Mogherini and Kamel emphasize the importance of strengthening and revitalizing the organization on its tenth anniversary

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On July 4, the Foreign Minister, Josep Borrell, affirmed before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Congress that the celebration of the Regional Forum in Barcelona can contribute to promote “an initiative that has been losing intensity”.

The UfM, whose headquarters are in the Pedralbes Palace of Barcelona and which was launched in Paris by the then French President Nicolás Sarkozy, in an attempt to relaunch the Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Barcelona of 1995, has already held two regional forums in 2015 and 2017.

Borrell received Nasser Kamel on June 26 in Madrid, with whom he shared “Spain’s firm commitment” to the work of the UfM and with whom he addressed the preparation of the Forum of October for the Foreign Ministers -or their delegates- of the 43 countries of the EU and the south shore of the Mediterranean that make up the UfM.