PAM President, Hon. Pedro Roque, featured among the keynote speakers at the Group of Mediterranean Studies and Research (GERM) meeting on the “Current challenges in the Mediterranean”, which was held in Rabat on 24 November, 2018.
The meeting, chaired by H.E. Habib El Malki, President of GERM and Speaker of the House of Representatives of Morocco, was attended by rectors of universities, deans of faculties, researchers and diplomats.
The aim of GERM is to carry out research on the Mediterranean region in the economic, social, political and sociological fields. Its objective is to better disseminate the perceptions of the Southern Mediterranean partner countries on the problems concerning the stability and the development of the partnership relations between the two shores of the Mediterranean.
In his intervention, President Roque highlighted the crises that are affecting several Mediterranean countries, especially in Syria and Libya, while requesting all States to remain vigilant against terrorism. In this sense, he praised the important role that PAM plays in building a common space of peace and prosperity. He also underlined that the Pact on Migration that will be adopted at the International Conference scheduled for 10 and 11 December in Marrakech, is an important step for the establishment of a “system of governance of migration”.
To face challenges to stability, security and development in the Mediterranean region, President El Malki stressed the need for a shared political will, fuelled by the same concerns and oriented towards the search for common solutions, and supported by new ideas also from academia and research institutions.
For his part, Carlos Condé, Head of the Middle East and Africa Division of the OECD Global Relations Secretariat, called for inclusive growth, which must be shared equitably within societies and create opportunities for all. He also referred to a major contradiction, whereby a weak business expansion is reported, whereas many studies conducted by the OECD have shown that entrepreneurship spirit exists among young people in the MENA region, but the investment climate does not promote the creation of new enterprises in sufficient number.
For his part, Ambassador Fathallah Sijelmassi noted that economic integration in the North shore of the Mediterranean is very strong, while the regional reflex is extremely weak on the South shore. In particular, 90% of the exchanges in the Euro-Mediterranean area are between the EU countries, 9% between the North and the South of the Mediterranean and only 1% between the Southern Mediterranean countries.
Following to a very active debate among all participants, President El Malki invited President Roque to become a member of the GERM Scientific Committee, and the proposal was adopted unanimously.