Eng. Sameh Fahmy, Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Andrea Cannito, the European Union President’s envoy discussed the work program of bolstering cooperation of the Mediterranean Basin states, comprising Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco, through an economic perspective achieving the targeted interest of all parties.
Fahmy highlighted that there is an initiative to establish a group of the Mediterranean Union states (G9) similar to the European Union’s. Fahmy and Cannito believe that this initiation carries the target of bolstering the Euro-Mediterranean partnership and attracting the investments, availing the required funding for the infrastructure, securing energy supplies along with speeding up the preparation of the joint projects’ plans and executive studies in this field.
Also, a plan to establish a leading committee compromising leading experts from the G9 has been tackled by the two sides as well. The target behind this committee lies in being able to lead & make change that qualify the Group to achieve success from an economic perspective and bolster the exchange of technical expertise.
From his side, Cannito added that the issue of world level trained technical cadres shortage has been discussed in the meeting, pointing out that the Arab states of the Mediterranean Basin, participating in this group is qualified to play a role in contributing to the provision of specialized cadres.

(MoP)