Society, economy & sport

Founding of Union for the Mediterranean

13 July 2008

The Union for the Mediterranean is an intergovernmental organization that brings together the European Union member states and a number of countries on the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean. It was launched at a summit in Paris, on the initiative of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who first proposed a narrower union of Mediterranean states. Partners such as Germany insisted on including the whole European Union, and the project became a relaunch of the Barcelona Process of the 1990s. Its secretariat is in Barcelona, and it supports regional projects in areas such as water, energy, transport and higher education. Political tensions in the region, especially the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, have often limited its work.

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