Supporting the Mediterranean through more trade and investment was the core of the discussions between EC DG NEAR, the Confederation of Egyptian European Chambers CEEBA, EBSOMED and BUSINESSMED.

The aim was ensuring that the economy works for people, that it is green, digital, and connected, supported by the coordination of financing instruments, and maximizing the use of private sector of blended finance and EU guarantees, especially through the EU’s investment framework for external action and the European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus (EFSD+) providing guarantees, blended finance and technical assistance with a firepower of €53,45 billion till 2027.

The win-win approach proposed was through mobilizing EU companies for more trade and investment with the Mediterranean especially through co-manufacturing and subcontracting in the south to access free trade areas of over 3 billion consumer markets with low cost and easy access, hence increasing exports of both sides at the same time while creating the highly needed jobs. It is so simple and applies to industries where it is either freight or tariff sensitive.

In that regards, revival of effective and successful EU economic integration initiatives like the Partenariate, Enterprise and Task Force is a must, supported by blending the various successful EU regional and cross border programmes such as EBSOMED and ENI CBC MED along with EU sectorial bilateral projects and EU Member States projects to ensure effectiveness and capitalization.