FEMIP 2008 Annual Report

There can be no doubt that 2008 will go down as a landmark year for the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, seeing, as it did, the launch of the Union for the Mediterranean. This ambitious step, officially announced at the July 2008 Paris Summit gave fresh impetus to Euro-Mediterranean relations and underscored the European and Mediterranean States’ readiness to commit to a partnership based on improved pooling of responsibilities, centred on specific projects. In its role as the region’s leading investor, FEMIP was charged with coordinating and supporting the implementation of three of the six priority initiatives adopted in Paris.

At the operational level, despite the spreading financial crisis, FEMIP maintained a strong volume of commitments in the Mediterranean with close on EUR 1.3 billion advanced to finance development projects in the region. In addition, FEMIP continued to diversify the range of its instruments and to strengthen its partnership with the European Commission and other lenders active in the Mediterranean partner countries.