Meetings between HE the Secretary General of the UfM and the President of EMUNI

Prof. Joseph Mifsud and H.E. Ahmad Ma'sadah attended together the establishment of the International Jury of the Prize Al Idrisi, which constitutes a new award for the advancement and achievement of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership.  Both have accepted to be members with top academic, diplomatic and institutional personalities coming from the North and South of the Mediterranean who will sit on the jury of this prize.

In the meetings Prof. Mifsud and H.E. Ma'sadah exchanged notes on pertinent issues on common initiatives being undertaken with the UFM by EMUNI.  The cordial talks will continue periodically in the future to align tangibly the actions of EMUNI to the objectives that the Secretary General of the UFM intends to give to his priorities and projects.  An invitation to the EMUNI Research Souk to be held in Alexandria in June was also extended by the President of EMUNI to H.E. Ma'sadeh.

The President of EMUNI and the Secretary General agreed on the opportunity of working closely under the leadership, inspiration and dedication of the Secretary General's objectives which are aimed at giving substance to the message coming from the UFM.  This was reiterated passionately by the Keynote speech which the General Secretary of the UFM made on Saturday May 15th, at Palazzo Abatellis in Sicilia for the forum -United by the Mediterranean- organised on the role of territories for a Mediterranean model of life and an alternative development to the financial crisis.  In his speech the Secretary General of the UFM offered various possibilities of cooperation on the premise of presence and accountability.  He also acknowledged publicly the strategic role that EMUNI is playing in the UFM.

On the margins of the Forum, meetings were also held by the President of EMUNI with the Co-President of the ARLEM, Mr. Mohamed Boudra, with whom a close collaboration is being sought on common issues in the UFM.

Further talks were held, after those started in Padova and Brussels earlier this month, with the Vice President of the ARLEM, LUC van den Brande, President of the Committee of the Regions of the EU.  Mr. Van den Brande and Mr. Boudra agreed to set up a liaison committee for EMUNI to participate and to provide technical knowhow to the activities of ARLEM.  This collaboration will start in a first meeting to be held in July in Brussels and to alternate EU and Non-EU locations.

The President of EMUNI also held a number of talks with regional leaders in the Mediterranean, including Spyros Elenodorou, President of the Larnaca District in Cyprus, Raffaele Lombardo, President of the Region of Sicilia, and the Presidents of the region of Aragon, Spain, of the Autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia-Giulia Italy, and the President of the Government de les Illes Balears.