Die Bank der EU

FEMIP, the financial instrument of the European Investment Bank for the European Union’s 10 partner countries in the Mediterranean, is strengthening its action to help the region come through the current economic crisis.

The FEMIP Ministerial Conference, held in Brussels on the margins of the EU finance ministers (EcoFin) meeting of July 7, examined the main operational priorities for 2009-11 and welcomed the high level of support for economic development that FEMIP was able to provide in 2008 (1) despite a difficult economic context. Ministers in particular endorsed the contribution that FEMIP is making to support the objectives fixed in the framework of the Union for the Mediterranean summit declaration in Paris a year ago, notably:

• Mediterranean Solar Plan: ministers took note of the initiative taken by EIB together with KfW and AfD to strengthen their cooperation with the aim of providing joint finance to projects with a value of EUR 5 bn in the areas of energy efficiency and renewable energy for five years, starting in 2010.
• Maritime and Land Highways: the support being offered through a programme of studies into logistic centres in the Mediterranean (“Logismed”) and support for investment in both infrastructure and means of transport.
• Coordinating the planned “De-pollution of the Mediterranean” on the basis of the reflections on sustainable development and impulses given at the Union for the Mediterranean ministerial in Paris on June 25 where the EIB played an active role in coordinating the interventions of financial institutions.

Strengthened partnership with FEMISE (Forum Euroméditerranéen des Instituts de Sciences Economiques): on the margins of the ministerial meeting, FEMIP, represented by EIB Vice-President Philippe de Fontaine Vive, and FEMISE, represented by President Ahmed Galal, and Prof. Jean-Louis Reiffers, chairman of its scientific committee, renewed their partnership (dating from 2006) and agreed, as a first initiative, to launch a study into the impact of the international financial crisis on the partner countries. The study should be ready in the first half of 2010.

The study will, firstly, seek to identify the transmission channels of the crisis in the partner countries and to quantify the impact (actual and envisaged) at a macro-economic level, with particular attention on the financial sector. Secondly, the study will have a forward-looking dimension, covering the next three years, to help identify economic policy responses that could be put in place by each country and to formulate recommendations about the action to be taken by international lenders and development finance partners.

The strengthened partnership aims to create new synergies between analyses provided by FEMISE and FEMIP operations. In this framework, FEMIP will be able to call on FEMISE to launch in-depth studies, such as that announced today, and to associate FEMISE with the technical assistance it provides partner countries. This will particularly be the case for the actions EIB will undertake in future through the planned Marseille Centre for Mediterranean Integration (MCMI). The MCMI will be a platform for assistance for policy reform in the partner countries bringing together, along with EIB, the key actors in the development of the Mediterranean including the World Bank, several bilateral European financial institutions, United Nations agencies and universities and think tanks (among them, FEMISE and the ETF in Turin).

Background information:

About FEMISE

FEMISE is a network of 80 economic research institutes, from 14 European Union countries and 10 partner countries, specialised in questions related to the economic and social development of the Mediterranean. The network is coordinated jointly by the Institut de la Méditerranée (France) and the Economic Research Forum (Egypt). For more information see: www.femise.org. The strengthened FEMIP-FEMISE partnership, financed from the FEMIP Trust Fund, builds on a cooperation agreement signed in March 2006 under which the two regularly exchange views on economic and social development issues in the partner countries and FEMIP participates in the definition of the FEMISE work programme.

About FEMIP

The Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership (FEMIP) was created in October 2002, at the request of the European Council in Barcelona, to strengthen and amplify EIB action in the Mediterranean partner countries. It is now the reference actor in the development of the Mediterranean with a focus on developing the local private sector and creating a favourable environment for investment. In six years FEMIP has invested more than EUR 8.5 bn in 125 projects, supported 1,770 small and medium-sized enterprises and dedicated nearly EUR 100m to technical assistance programmes and studies. For more information see:
http://www.eib.org/projects/regions/med/index.htm.