FEMIP steps up action to help Mediterranean through crisis

FEMIP, the financial instrument of the European Investment Bank (EIB) for the EU’s 10 partner countries in the Mediterranean, is strengthening its action to help the region come through the current economic crisis.

An EIB press release said the FEMIP Ministerial Conference, held in Brussels on the margins of the EU finance ministers (ECOFIN) meeting of July 7, examined the main operational priorities for 2009-11 and welcomed the high level of support for economic development that FEMIP was able to provide in 2008 despite a difficult economic context. Ministers in particular endorsed the contribution that FEMIP is making to support the objectives fixed in the framework of the Union for the Mediterranean summit declaration in Paris a year ago, notably:

Mediterranean Solar Plan: ministers took note of the initiative taken by EIB together with KfW and AfD to strengthen their cooperation with the aim of providing joint finance to projects with a value of €5 billion in the areas of energy efficiency and renewable energy for five years, starting in 2010.
Maritime and Land Highways: the support being offered through a programme of studies into logistic centres in the Mediterranean (“Logismed”) and support for investment in both infrastructure and means of transport.
Coordinating the planned “De-pollution of the Mediterranean” on the basis of the reflections on sustainable development and impulses given at the Union for the Mediterranean ministerial in Paris on June 25 where the EIB played an active role in coordinating the interventions of financial institutions.

Meanwhile, on the margins of the ministerial meeting, FEMIP and the EU-funded FEMISE project (Forum Euroméditerranéen des Instituts de Sciences Economiques) renewed their partnership (dating from 2006) and agreed, as a first initiative, to launch a study into the impact of the international financial crisis on the partner countries. The study should be ready in the first half of 2010.

The strengthened partnership aims to create new synergies between analyses provided by FEMISE and FEMIP operations. In this framework, FEMIP will be able to call on FEMISE to launch in-depth studies, such as that announced on July 7, and to associate FEMISE with the technical assistance it provides partner countries.

Press release

Union for the Mediterranean ECOFIN Ministerial Meeting – Joint Conclusions

FEMIP – website

FEMISE – website

Contact information	n/a
News type	Inbrief
File link	http://www.enpi-info.eu/mainmed.php?id_type=1&id=19022&lang_id=450
Source of information	ENPI Info Centre
Keyword(s)	H2020, ENPI, Union for the Mediterranean, Mediterranean-Union
Subject(s)	FINANCE-ECONOMY , NATURAL MEDIUM , POLICY-WATER POLICY AND WATER MANAGEMENT , PREVENTION AND NUISANCES POLLUTION
Relation	http://www.emwis.net/initiatives/mediterranean-union
Geographical coverage	Euromed
News date	08/07/2009
Working language(s)	ENGLISH , FRENCH

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