The Mediterranean Cross-Border Cooperation Programme (CBCMed) organised a conference to mark the transition to the new phase of the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI) to be implemented in the period 2014-2020. The ‘NextMed’ conference took place on 12 December 2014 in Rome, under the patronage of the Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, and was attended by more than 500 people from public administrations, local institutions, universities, NGOs, civil society, international organisations and the private sector from all over the Mediterranean basin. The conference presented the achievements of cross-border cooperation in the Mediterranean region through projects that are actively and jointly managed by all the countries involved in this programme and highlighted the challenges ahead in the region. The General Secretariat of ASCAME and a large number of its members participated in this conference to confirm the willingness of the various Euro-Mediterranean countries to strengthen cultural bridges between Mediterranean countries and to work closely together towards the emergence of an economically, politically, culturally and socially developed Mediterranean.