UEMF–EMUNI conference at the European Parliament: higher education at the heart of Euro-Mediterranean cooperation

Euromed University of Fes and EMUNI organized on 11 December 2025 a high-level conference at the European Parliament in Brussels highlighting the role of universities as a structuring instrument of cooperation between Europe and the Southern Mediterranean.

This conference, entitled "Bridging Continents: Higher Education as a Tool for EU-Southern Mediterranean Cooperation", emphasized the importance of Euro-Mediterranean cooperation in higher education, scientific research and innovation through the co-creation of programs, joint degrees and bidirectional mobility of students and academic staff.

Four panels provided a state of play, but above all issued practical and immediately operational recommendations addressed to policymakers.

Research, Technology, Development and Innovation, combined with facilitation and simplification of procedures related to the mobility of students, researchers and professors, constitute the foundation of the first two pillars of the Pact for the Mediterranean, aiming for people to be a driver of change for stronger, more sustainable and integrated economies in the North and South of the Mediterranean through more established connections and breakthrough innovations with positive socio-economic impacts.

The panelists also strongly recommended that the action plan of the new Pact for the Mediterranean should rely on existing structures and institutions such as Euromed University of Fes, EMUNI, UNIMED, TETHYS and other networks rather than creating new ones that would weaken the aforementioned entities. It is therefore necessary to reinforce and support these existing institutions politically and financially, ready to play an active role in applied research, technology transfer, innovation and valorization, as well as ensuring the mobility of research actors within a partnership framework based on joint laboratories, joint degrees and co-supervision of doctoral and post-doctoral researchers.

Attending this high-level conference were academics from both shores of the Mediterranean, representatives of the European Commission, officials from the Union for the Mediterranean, ambassadors, as well as ministers of state, members of parliament and representatives of the European Commissioner for the Mediterranean.

Given the complexity of the problems and challenges facing the Euro-Mediterranean area, these can only be resolved through joint action in a spirit of partnership uniting the North and the South whose destinies are closely linked.