The IVth MedThink 5+5 Forum will be held in Malta between the 1st and 2nd of July, 2019 under the title “Fostering Innovative Alliances in the Western Mediterranean. A Basin of Opportunities for a Sustainable Future”.
The fourth edition of the Forum is co-organised by the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed) and the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), in collaboration with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotion of Malta and the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies (MEDAC).
This edition will count on the presence of Mr. Carmelo Abela, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotion of Malta who will chair the opening session of this year’s edition. The Keynote Speech will be delivered by Ms. Ana Santos Pinto, the Deputy Minister of Defence of Portugal. (The opening session is open but registration is compulsory: https://forms.gle/DgVYh9wrkEuCoBYF7)
Moreover, there will be more than 40 experts and representatives of think tanks and diplomatic institutions from the Member States of the 5+5 Dialogue during the two days of the conference.
Since its inception in May 2016, think tanks from the Western Mediterranean have formed a strong alliance known as the Med Think 5+5 Network which has by now organised three annual conferences and multiple thematic seminars that brought together experts from around the region and beyond, in an effort to analyse the determinants of regional security and stability, as well as economic and human development. The network held its 3rd Annual Forum, entitled “Human development as a driver of cooperation in the 5+5 Dialogue: common challenges, shared management” which took place in Algiers between 25th and 27th of June, 2018. The Med Think 5+5 has also organized series of thematic seminars; the most recent one was held in December, 2018 and was devoted to the issue of transports, logistics and infrastructure in the Western Mediterranean.
In this regard, the Med Think 5+5´s 4th Forum will go a step further by exploring innovative ways to establish cooperation alliances. In a context of rapid social change, political dialogue platforms should draw on the principle of variable geometry to foster concrete and result-oriented initiatives in sectors of mutual interest. The first session of the conference, a more institutional roundtable, will be devoted to the unifying role of the 5+5 Dialogue in allowing for a more comprehensive Euro-Mediterranean Cooperation, following the “Sommet des Deux Rives”. The second and third sessions will be devoted to the consolidation of an environmentally-friendly and resilient socioeconomic model, the lodestones of which could be the Blue Economy and energy efficiency. Finally, the fourth session will focus on the formation of new alliances within the 5+5 Dialogue and the Mediterranean region at large.