The eighth Annual Meeting of members and partners of the Center for Mediterranean Integration (CMI) chaired by Hafez Ghanem, World Bank Vice President for the MENA region, was held with high-level participation from its members (Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia, EIB, City of Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region and the World Bank), and partners including AFD, European Union, FEMISE, France Médias Monde, GIZ, MuCEM, City of Marseille, Banque de France and the Union for the Mediterranean.

CMI Midway Through its Third Phase

The Annual Meeting showcased the CMI’s progress during the year 2016 and emphasized the Center’s clear vision for its third mandate covering the period of 2016-2018. Members and partners reconfirmed their satisfaction and constant support for the CMI’s work on the five themes: Education, Innovation and Employability; Refugees and Host Communities; Prevention of Violent Extremism through Development; Climate Change (water and Energy); and Territorial Cohesion and Urban Development. They highlighted their continuous conviction of featuring youth as a crosscutting and guiding priority for the work the center is pursuing.

The annual meeting was followed by a panel discussion around the subject of regional public goods in the face of political economic uncertainty. Panelists were:

• H.E Dr. Sahar Nasr, Minister of International Cooperation, Egypt
• Shantayanan Devarajan, Chief Economist of the World Bank’s MENA Region
• Jean-Paul Chagnollaud, Director of the Institut de Recherche et d’Etudes Méditerranéen Moyen-Orient (IReMMO), France

The panel aimed at discussing major political and economic challenges at the regional level, and how these changes are likely to affect cooperation between countries and the delivery of public goods, which is at the heart of CMI work. 

2016 Annual Report

Photos