The President of the Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association – EMEA, Prof. Rym Ayadi, Professor at The Bayes Business School, participated at the opening panel in the seminar Catalunya a la Mediterrània (Catalonia in the Mediterranean). The event was jointly organized by the Government of Catalonia and the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed) on 28 February 2023 at IEMed HQ. The seminar started with welcome addresses by Senén Florensa, Executive President of IEMed and Anna Dotor, Director General of the Ministry for Foreign Action, Government of Catalonia.
In her intervention, in the session “New Trends of the Mediterranean Agenda and Opportunities for Catalonia” moderated by Roger Albinyana, Managing Director of IEMed and member of the Advisory Board of EMEA, along with Julien Barnes-Dacey, Director of the MENA programme of the European Council on Foreign Relations, and Andrea Noferini, Professor at the CEI-International Affairs; Prof. Ayadi highlighted the challenges faced by the Mediterranean region post COVID 19 Pandemic and amidst the war in Ukraine, and the opportunities for the EU, particularly, during the Spanish Presidency in 2023 for Catalonia as a European Mediterranean hub active in several regional projects co-funded by the European Union, to strengthen the partnership between Europe the Mediterranean and Africa in the energy transition, financing infrastructure, regional value chains and entrepreneurship in mutually beneficial sectors to the three regions.
In 2019, the Government of Catalonia approved its Mediterranean Strategy (MedCat 2030), making a clear statement that the region is a priority for its external action. Four years after the launch of the MedCat 2030 Strategy, the preparation of a new Action Plan for 2023-2026 offers an excellent opportunity to rethink and refocus the Government’s action in this region, considering new trends in a changing global environment.
