ASCAME welcomes European Commission President Ms. Ursula von der Leyen’s announcement she would be creating a separate portfolio to deal with the Mediterranean, as part of her next team, signaling her next term will pay more attention to the region. “The Mediterranean region should get undivided attention,” Von der Leyen told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg on the 18th of July. For ASCAME, this is a significant step to advance towards current challenges in both shores of the region, such as geopolitics context -wars in Europe and in the South of the Mediterranean-, financial crisis and challenges related to digital transformation and sustainable transition.

According to Mr. Anwar Zibaoui, General Coordinator at ASCAME, “We look forward to working with the European Commission to further develop comprehensive partnerships between public and private organisations and institutions from the two shores of the Mediterranean”. In his opinion, “the proposed appointed of a European Commissioner for the Mediterranean to better tackle the challenges of the region was made by Ascame in 2015.