The meeting was part of preparations for a “New Pact for the Mediterranean,” which is due to be drafted in Brussels on 11–12 June.
Officials and experts from across the region will use it as a blueprint for the next phase of cooperation among countries bordering the sea’s northern, southern, and eastern shores.
The draft will build on months of discussions held since October 2024, involving policymakers, researchers and civil society actors across various Mediterranean cities.
These talks have revisited the three pillars of the original partnership: political and security cooperation, economic development, and cultural exchange.
The most recent meeting, held in Cairo on 27–28 May, was organized by EuroMeSCo (Euro-Mediterranean Research, Dialogue, Advocacy) in collaboration with the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies (ACPSS), the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), and the American University in Cairo.
“Last October, there was a thorough discussion on the geopolitical issues; in Cairo, this week and in Rabat, last month, the focus was more on the socio-economic issues including climate change, urban development and social and economic discrepancies and the way to deal with the challenges imposed by the evolving situation on these fronts in the new pact that is being drafted,” said Rabha S. Allam, a senior researcher at ACPSS.
Participants focused on sustainable development, including natural resource management, especially water and energy, and the role of the private sector in implementing a five-year roadmap for cooperation. The last such framework, issued in 2021, centered on post-pandemic recovery.
“Every time a plan was put in place it had to meet the priorities of the moment; this has been the case since 1995 onward,” Allam said. She added that obviously, the priorities of northern and southern Mediterranean countries are not always aligned.
Still, Allam noted growing common ground around climate adaptation, green transition, private-sector engagement, and migration.
On migration, she said, the perspective of the south and the north is about managing undocumented migration and improving the quality of education in the south to allow for capacity and skills buildings in the south. This helps provide the north with skillful elements that could be integrated in the European systems.
The Cairo meeting drew 90 participants and revealed Southern frustration with the limited Northern commitment to the partnership.
Discussions addressed challenges around urban planning, job access, vocational training, and private-sector engagement—particularly in southern cities. Northern concerns focused more on supply chain security, energy, and migration control.
Bridging this divide will be a central challenge for those drafting the new pact, Allam said—particularly as Europe seeks to reassert its political credibility after prolonged ambiguity over the crisis in the Middle East.
According to Allam, finding a way that brings the priorities of the south and the north closer is a top challenge for the authors of the new pact of partnership, especially now that Europe is trying to regain political credibility after a long hesitation on the conflict in the Middle East.
Ibrahim Awad, professor of practice in global affairs and director, Center for Migration and Refugee Studies, School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, at AUC, stated there is room for complementarity between north and south so that the north would think more of the Mediterranean as a bridge rather than a barrier.
For his part, Mohamed Abou El-Enein, chairman of the Egyptian-European Business Council since 2007, said that the time has come for the European Union (EU) to commit to action in a steady and incremental process to help countries in the south improve their status in what would contribute to the overall stability around the Mediterranean Sea.
Speaking at the opening of the Cairo consultation, EU mission head Angelina Eichhorst called the Mediterranean partnership “a living partnership that must remain flexible and responsive.”
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