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The countries in the Mediterranean region will have to cope with significant challenges over the coming decades: economic reforms, financial markets modernisation, upgrading infrastructure, more prudent management of natural resources. These challenges will require both political will and good governance at the level of each individual country and the outcome will both determine and interact with a number of cultural and social factors.

MEDPRO – Mediterranean Prospects is a consortium of 17 highly reputed institutions from throughout the Mediterranean funded under the EU’s 7th Framework Program and coordinated by the Centre for European Policy Studies based in Brussels. At its core, MEDPRO explores the key challenges the countries in the Southern Mediterranean region (from Morocco to Turkey) will have to cope with in the next decades. To do so, MEDPRO will undertake a prospective analysis building on a multi disciplinary approach of research in seven fields of study: geopolitics and governance; demography, health, ageing; management of environment and natural resources; energy and climate change mitigation; economic integration, trade, investment and sectoral analyses; financial services and capital markets; human capital, social protection, inequality and migration; scenario building and impact assessment; scenarios for regional integration and cooperation with the EU. By carrying out this work, MEDPRO aims at delivering the best scientific underpinning for future policy decisions to be taken at both domestic and EU level within the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) frameworks.

Aims of the project:

  • Foresight exercise analysing trends and drivers for the Mediterranean region, setting up a number of background scenarios of its evolution towards 2030 (and 2050), and exploring scenarios for a closer cooperation between Europe and the Mediterranean region.
  • Qualitative and quantitative impact assessment of the scenarios on economic (trade, tourism, energy, water, agriculture and fisheries), social (demography, migration) and political (security, stability, democracy) terms.
  • Develop scenarios for regional integration and cooperation of the Mediterranean region with the EU and other regions.
  • Develop policy recommendations identifying the role the EU can play in promoting such a regional integration.

Role of FEEM:

Besides being in the Management Bureau of the project and thus assisting the Coordinator in the scientific coordination of the whole project, FEEM leads the activities related to (a) oil and gas (including the assessment of future oil and gas supply contribution the Southern Mediterranean countries can provide to the EU); (b) renewables and energy efficiency potential in the Southern Mediterranean as well as (c) sustainable development and management of resources (including an integrated assessment of climate change impacts in Mediterranean countries). 
FEEM will be strongly associated in the elaboration of policy recommendations.