At the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Regional Forum in Barcelona on Friday, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty stressed that collective efforts are essential to tackle the region’s economic, environmental, and security challenges and turn them into opportunities for development and stability.
The forum, which marked the 10th anniversary of the UfM, discussed how to collectively build an inclusive and more prosperous Mediterranean through tackling common priorities from climate change and socio-economic problems to peace and security in the region.
Abdelatty outlined progress in Euro-Mediterranean cooperation and noted Egypt’s continued engagement in UfM initiatives, including its regional transport action plan.
He also pointed out Egypt’s contributions to several economic, infrastructure, and renewable-energy projects, including the Egypt-Greece electricity interconnection, the agricultural goods transport corridor between Egypt and Italy, and the TerraMED clean energy initiative.
He reaffirmed Egypt’s commitment to work with the UfM to advance political, economic, and humanitarian cooperation and to help build a safer and more prosperous future for the region.
According to Raouf Saad, a former ambassador to the EU, in order to understand the UfM, it is necessary to go back to the Barcelona Process, beginning in 1995 a few years after the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991, and designed to help prospects for lasting peace in the Middle East.
Economically, it was based on two dimensions of cooperation among member states, a vertical dimension between the north and south and a horizontal dimension among the southern Mediterranean countries until complete peace was attained and the two dimensions met to establish the biggest free-trade area in the world.
When these goals were not met, the UfM was founded to present a new forum for cooperation that would bring all the EU and southern Mediterranean countries together, Saad explained.
It opened new prospects for cooperation among countries with the necessary political and economic flexibility to cooperate. It also introduced new areas for cooperation like energy, as seen in the East Mediterranean, climate change, and peace in the region, he told Al-Ahram Weekly.
Egypt, he added, has been an active member from the beginning, as both political will and the creation of economic opportunities are very much rooted in Egyptian foreign policy.
Egypt co-founded the UfM and has played a significant role in its activities, taking part in more than 20 projects in areas like business development, higher education, and urban development.
This year’s forum coincided with the 30th anniversary of the Barcelona Process, which laid the foundations for dialogue and cooperation across the Mediterranean region.
The region’s political problems were tackled during the forum.
Abdelatty described the Palestinian issue as central to regional tensions. He urged the international community to assume its responsibilities in responding to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and to ensure the sustained delivery of aid.
Kaya Callas, the European Union’s (EU) high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, pointed to the recent UN Security Council resolution on an International Stabilisation Force for Gaza as presenting a real opportunity for long-term peace in the region.
“It enjoys global support, and this is the key. Securing peace will require all hands-on deck. And there is a role for everyone,” she said.
Re-building walls in Gaza will not make it a living place after more than two years of genocide and suffering, said Saad. What it needs is the creation of a healthy environment and the removal of all the impacts of the war so that it can be a livable place for the Palestinians.
The return of Syria to the UfM was also hailed by Callas in her opening address at the forum.
The foreign ministers present reviewed other regional challenges during the forum, including unemployment, the rising cost of living, declining opportunities, and the increasing impacts of climate change in the region.
They also adopted a new strategic vision for the UfM.
“The new strategic vision reinforces our role as a key platform for collective action and dialogue in the region, connecting peoples, countries, and economies,” said Nasser Kamel, UfM secretary-general.
“As we celebrate three decades of cooperation, we look forward with determination to a more interconnected, stable, and prosperous Mediterranean region.”
The vision focuses on three pillars: human development, the economy, and security and migration management.
On migration, Abdelatty highlighted the need to address irregular migration through a comprehensive development approach and to find a balance between efforts to control irregular flows and creating legal ways for labour mobility to fill skills shortages in Europe.
He also took part in a meeting on the sidelines of the forum to launch the EU Pact for the Mediterranean.
He held a series of bilateral meeting with foreign ministers and senior officials attending the forum including his Spanish, Palestinian, Bosnian, and Croatian counterparts.
Strengthening bilateral ties and exchanging views on regional and international developments were tackled during these meetings.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 4 December, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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