As Europe and its Southern neighbours mark thirty years since the Barcelona Declaration, the European Commission has launched an ambitious initiative: the new Pact for the Mediterranean. This strategic framework seeks to deepen cooperation, strengthen ties and build a shared space of stability, prosperity, and opportunity. In this interview, Dubravka Šuica, EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean, highlights the Pact’s commitment to delivering real impact across the region.

• Can you briefly explain what the Pact is and what it aims to achieve? 

The Pact for the Mediterranean is a key initiative of the Commission. It is a new and ambitious effort to deepen cooperation and strengthen the EU relations with our Southern partners, with the goal of making the region a shared space of stability, prosperity and security. It’s a political framework developed together with the EU Member States, our partners and stakeholders, focusing on areas where we have common interests. The Pact seeks to tackle common challenges while opening up new opportunities through three main pillars: strengthening people-to-people connections, boosting economic growth, and promoting regional security, stability and closer cooperation on migration.

• Why is it particularly important, thirty years after the Barcelona Declaration, to renew and strengthen the EU’s partnership with the Mediterranean region?

At a time of geopolitical and economic uncertainty, closer cooperation in the Mediterranean region has never been more important. Building on past engagement, the Pact introduces a more integrated and balanced approach that benefits both the EU and its partners. What makes it different from the Barcelona Declaration of 30 years ago is both the ambition of our shared goals and the way we will achieve them.

• In practical terms, how will the Pact make a difference for citizens in Europe and in its neighbourhood? 

The Pact aims to unlock investment, create opportunities for young people and businesses, and deliver tangible results that make a real difference in people’s lives. It will, for example, expand EU programmes like Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe to include our Mediterranean partners, and launch new initiatives, such as the Trans-Mediterranean Energy and Clean Tech Cooperation Initiative. Through these efforts, the Pact aims to deliver practical results that respond directly to people’s needs and priorities. This includes progress in clean energy and green technology, water management and climate adaptation, increased trade and investment, job creation, education and skills, mobility, digital innovation, port connectivity, as well as security and defence.