On 10-14 July, EMUNI participated in the first policy workshop organised by EMNES project in Brussels. EMNES is the Euro-Mediterranean Network for Economic Studies financially supported under the EuropeAid programme of the European Commission. The Network established in 2015 brings together key experts, researchers, think tanks and other professionals building on the research work of Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association (www.euromed-economists.org) and the Mediterranean Prospects Network (www.medpro-foresight.eu). Six main research areas initially established under EMNES, in which EMUNI is actively involved as well, focus on 1) Institutional reforms; 2) private sector and SMEs; 3) Human capital and Education; 4) Macroeconomic policies; 5) Financial markets and 6) Economic liberalization with the aim of reinforcing dialogue and promoting socio-economic research and studies in priority themes of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, particularly focusing on employment creation, social inclusion and sustainable development.
The workshop was designed to bring together EMNES researchers and external experts to take a step further towards to the EMNES policy roadmap consisting in a wide range of policy recommendations, books, studies and papers. The plenary sessions covered specific socio-economic topics relevant for the Euro-Mediterranean region such as the EU Neighbourhood policies presented by Ingrid Schwaiger, DG Near (EC), the presentation of Fathallah Sijilmassi, former Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean and Roger Albinyana, IEMED, on the Euro-Mediterranean strategy. In representation of IMF, Raja Al Marzouki gave an overview on the fiscal policy in the MENA region while Tom Diderich, EC, briefly presented the impact of important instruments such as the Euro-Mediterranean Charter for Enterprise or the Small Business Act in the region.
Prof. Abdelhamid El-Zoheiry, President of EMUNI, spoke on STI policies in the Euro-Mediterranean region presenting the most important milestones and achievements in the Euro-med cooperation with mention to EMUNI created in 2008 as a key priority of the Union for the Mediterranean.
In addition to the above, interactive working group sessions complemented the plenary sessions setting main guidelines for the upcoming months and in preparation to the next workshop to be hosted by EMUNI in Piran in October 2018.
