At the request of the Ministerial Committee of the Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership (FEMIP) at its meeting on 25-26 June 2006 in Tunis, Philippe de Fontaine Vive, EIB Vice-President with responsibility for FEMIP, has organized a conference on the regional integration of the Euro-Mediterranean area through transport systems.
Under the patronage of His Most Serene Highness the Sovereign Prince, this high-level event will bring together in the Principality of Monaco, on 9 and 10 November 2006, 250 transport professionals from the 35 countries of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership to hear the views of some twenty top-flight speakers including EIB Vice-President Philippe de Fontaine Vive and European Commission Vice-President Jacques Barrot.
The FEMIP Conference 2006 will examine the conditions for establishing a Euro-Mediterranean transport and logistics system and look at how this is to be developed and financed. FEMIP, which has already invested more than EUR 5 billion in regional transport and energy infrastructure, has markedly improved the effectiveness of projects financed thanks in particular to its regional offices in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco and its technical assistance mechanism. In view of the still vast investment needs, one of the topics addressed by the FEMIP Conference 2006 will be how to increase the involvement of the private sector in financing such infrastructure.