Earlier today, ministers from EU Member States and Southern Mediterranean countries gathered in Barcelona to launch the new Pact for the Mediterranean, a package of shared initiatives. Selected civil society responses are below:
Moataz El Fegiery, Vice President, EuroMed Rights, a network of Euro-Mediterranean human rights organisations:
“The New Pact of the Mediterranean should be seized as an opportunity to reopen and safeguard civic space on both shores of the Mediterranean, ensuring meaningful involvement of civil society in its design and implementation. Only by placing people’s rights at the centre can the Pact become sustainable, contribute to more enabling business environments in Southern partner countries, and advance the political, social and economic rights of all who live in the region.”
Giulia Giordano, Director of Mediterranean and Global Strategy, ECCO, the Italian climate think tank:
“As the New Pact for the Mediterranean is launched in Barcelona at the Union for the Mediterranean ministerial meeting, Europe signals a renewed commitment towards the region. With the region holding great geopolitical centrality, especially in this rapidly evolving global order, the EU’s New Pact can be an important instrument to reaffirm Europe’s diplomatic and strategic leadership, through shaping innovative partnerships and relaunching regional cooperation. Its real test will come with implementation.”
“Only a genuinely regional approach built on co-participation and shared responsibility can turn this vision of a Common Mediterranean Space into reality. Together with our partners of the Mediterranean Alliance of Think Tanks on Climate Change, we at ECCO highlight the need for time-bound, measurable targets, such as the TeraMed, and for stronger co-creation mechanisms that place adaptation, climate resilience and decarbonization at the core of this process.”
Adriana Clivillé, International PR & Corporate Communications at CREAF, a public research center based in Barcelona and focused on environmental crisis and biodiversity loss:
“A Mediterranean Science-Diplomacy Center, as raised in the Pact, is one of the key instruments to achieve evidence-based policy making and knowledge sharing schemes, among other complementary initiatives. It would have the potential to leverage scientific cooperation on our shared environment, which would strengthen ties between the South and the North shores and improve evidence-based decision making”.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
Further civil society reactions can be found in:
- A proposed delivery plan for the Pact, launched by EuroMed Rights and MATTCh (the Mediterranean Alliance of Think Tanks on Climate Change), representing hundreds of civil society groups working on climate, energy, and human rights across the Mediterranean.
- The Mediterranean Manifesto, launched by Oxfam in partnership with a Mediterranean NGO coalition.