With the aim to analyse the socioeconomic consequences of the COVID-19 crisis to better understand the challenges of the recovery in the countries of the Western Mediterranean, the MedThink 5+5 brought together experts from countries of the 5+5 Dialogue in a new webinar entitled “From Crisis to Recovery in the Western Mediterranean: Challenges and Opportunities on the road to a Post-COVID-19 Sustainable Growth” on 11 November 2020.

Organised by the European Institute of the Mediterranean in collaboration with the Policy Center for the New South, this second MedThink 5+5 webinar of the year debated the prospects of economic recovery in a Western Mediterranean which has suffered from an historical severe economic contraction as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The participants discussed the scope of this socioeconomic crisis in the different countries of the 5+5 Dialogue and the measures taken by the respective governments to firstly mitigate the impact of the economic recession on the productive tissue and employment, and secondly to help re-activate the economy to quickly return to a path of growth.

The opportunities that the post-COVID-19 era can offer to the countries of the region, especially in terms of reshoring supply chains in the Southern Mediterranean, as well as the role of the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation in financing the recovery, were also emphasized by the experts taking part in the webinar.

This second webinar of the MedThink 5+5 network counted with the participation of Senén Florensa (President of the Executive Committee, IEMed), Karim El Aynaoui (President, Policy Center for the New South), Luis Óscar Moreno (Director General of Economic Diplomacy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of Spain), Roger Albinyana (Director of Mediterranean Regional Policies and Human Development, IEMed), Giorgia Giovannetti (Vice-President, University of Firenze), Hakim Ben Hammouda (Former Minister of Economy and Finance of Tunisia), Yahia Zoubir (Professor of International Relations, Kedge Business Schools), and Larabi Jaïdi (Senior Fellow, Policy Center for the New South).

The webinar will lead to the publication of a report gathering the recommendations put forward by the experts during the discussions.

Find here the agenda of the webinar.

Read here the report of the webinar.

Watch the webinar on the YouTube channel of the IEMed.