Dear Nasser Kamel,
Dear Jaume Duch,
Dear Fernando Sampedro,
Dear Maria Eugènia,
Dear Joško Klisović,
Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great honour and pleasure to be with you at the Conference of Mediterranean Cities as the first Commissioner for the Mediterranean.
I would like to thank you, dear Nasser and Jaume, dear Josko, for your introduction and for the warm welcome here in Barcelona.
As a former Mayor of Dubrovnik, I had the privilege to participate to the 10th anniversary of the Barcelona Process, in an event hosted by then Mayor of Barcelona, Joan Clos.
Today, I am happy to see that 81 local authorities from all shores of the Mediterranean are working together for sustainable urban development.
This is such an important topic.
Because our citizens are at the heart of everything we do.
And no one is closer to citizens than you are.
Tomorrow we are marking the signature of the Barcelona Declaration 30 years ago.
It was a milestone event – and the beginning of a strategic process where we considered the Mediterranean as a shared space of peace, prosperity and stability.
Catalonia, and particularly Barcelona, are key players in this endeavour.
Your strategic location and historical ties to both Europe and the southern Mediterranean make you a centre of gravity in our common undertaking.
All of us appreciate your effort to foster a more cohesive Mediterranean community and to bridge gaps between different cities and regions.
It is in the spirit of the Barcelona Process that we are now taking our cooperation forward.
And we are making a great leap, not just continuing business as usual.
Our Pact for the Mediterranean is the framework to lead us in this new beginning.
It is grounded in a new partnership of equals, co-ownership and joint responsibility.
The Pact builds on our historical and cultural ties and aims to focus on strategic areas of mutual interest where we share challenges and aspirations.
We are creating a Common Mediterranean Space.
The Pact has been shaped by a comprehensive consultation process including the Union for the Mediterranean.
I am equally grateful for the contributions from academia and civil society, the Committee of the Regions and ARLEM, and the local level.
Your ideas have helped design the Pact and make it more tailor-made.
We have really made a shift.
We have changed our methodology.
We are using a bottom-up approach.
We are going much more granular.
The Pact contains more than 100 initiatives for tangible results.
We want real value-added for our citizens and our economies.
The Pact has a flexible architecture, which will allow for variable participation of partners in the implementation of the initiatives - taking into consideration the specificities of each partner.
This means that, as local authorities you can chose the projects that are interesting for you, and decide which ones you want to participate in.
Let me very briefly recapitulate the three pillars of the Pact.
The first pillar focuses on people.
People are the driving force of change and innovation.
We want to empower people by creating a common space for learning, culture, sports and mobility.
One of the flagship projects is creating a Mediterranean University.
Its main objective is to connect young people from the Mediterranean shores.
It is a great opportunity to strengthen our sense of cooperation and understanding.
We want to extend Erasmus+ providing mobility opportunities for higher education students, researchers and academic staff.
This is about brain circulation, not brain drain.
And to ensure that young peoples voices are heard, we will establish a Youth Parliamentary Assembly.
We can only create a prosperous future for the Mediterranean with our youth.
This is very close to my heart.
I have worked a lot with the youth – in the youth dialogues, the panels on the Future of Europe, and not least as a former teacher.
The second pillar is about tapping into the full potential of our economies.
We will support start-ups and SMEs.
We will expand our cooperation in renewable energy, clean technologies, and the blue economy.
Whatever we are doing, we do it to deliver growth and jobs.
Our goal is to bridge the skills gap in labour markets.
And we are talking quality jobs here.
One prominent example is T-MED – the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy and Clean Tech Initiative.
It is about capturing the opportunities of the energy transition.
The potential of solar, wind, and green hydrogen in the Mediterranean is enormous.
And this will reduce our collective carbon footprint – and increase our energy security and ultimately competitiveness on all shores.
Through investment platforms, we want to bring together ready-to-go projects with public and private funding.
We can count on the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to support us in leveraging investment from the private sector.
The third pillar of the Pact covers security, preparedness, and migration management.
We will establish a regional dialogue on internal security to strongly combat organised crime and terrorism.
We will also enhance the prevention of radicalisation.
On preparedness for natural disasters, we are going to support the development of hazard early-warning systems and establish a European firefighting hub.
As you know, migration remains our greatest shared challenge.
At the same time, it is about shared opportunities.
Let us be clear.
Fighting illegal migration is one thing.
And legal, orderly, and safe pathways are something very different.
We want to fight traffickers in human beings that abuse the most vulnerable.
This is why the Pact will support joint efforts to
prevent illegal departures,
fight smugglers and traffickers, and
strengthen border management.
At the same time, we want to strengthen legal pathways for well-managed labour migration, for example through Talent Partnerships.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Following the official launch of the Pact together with partners tomorrow, we will quickly move to the implementation phase.
And this is where the role of cities and local communities comes in.
You are at the front line.
Local authorities are critical to the success of the Pact.
Your involvement as cities ensures that the initiatives are grounded in local realities and address the needs of citizens.
As I already mentioned, it is the bottom-up approach that matters.
We must build on the strengths of the local level and the transformative power that cities can mobilise.
I have insisted on the inclusion of mechanisms in the Pact to strengthen your role in governance and policy advocacy.
It is my personal priority that your expertise and best practice are taken on board.
Dear friends,
We are at an important moment 30 years after the start of the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation.
In this autumn of 2025, we are taking it to a new level.
We want to deliver concrete results for the citizens of all shores of our Mare Nostrum.
We have a common vision of how to create real impact in economic, social, environmental, and societal terms.
And we know we can achieve it by working together.
MedCities are the backbone of our Common Mediterranean Space.
Thank you for your great contribution to our shared purpose.
