Intercultural dialogue as a "key instrument" for the success of the new Agenda for the Mediterranean was the common idea that emerged from the online meeting "From the Barcelona Declaration to the New Agenda for the Mediterranean", the fifth public dialogue of the Virtual Marathon for Dialogue in the Euromed of the Anna Lindh Foundation (ALF). The event, organized on June 15 on the Zoom platform and livestreamed on Facebook, was dedicated to the Agenda for the Mediterranean to strengthen the partnership between the European Union and its southern neighboring partners.
The dialogue registered the participation of Elisabeth Guigou, president of the Anna Lindh Foundation, Eleonora Insalaco, who is in charge of operations and intercultural research ALF, Blanca Moreno-Dodson of the Center for Mediterranean integration (Cmi, France), Burak Yusmak, a consultant for international relations (Germany), Nada Abdelsamad, a journalist for BBC Arabic in Lebanon, Merna Shalash, national coordinator of the Egyptian network of the Anna Lindh Foundation, Sana Al-Emam of the Arab Women Media Center in Jordan, and Josep Ferré, national coordinator of the Spanish network of the foundation. The meeting was moderated by Aissam Benaissa of Connect NordAfrika.
During the debate, participants discussed the role of civil society in promoting reciprocal confidence in the Euro-Mediterranean region, on initiatives for youth empowerment and on policies of priority in post-pandemic recovery.
"Intercultural dialogue will be the key tool for this new agenda", because "the role of civil society is essential, if we want to deal with climate change, develop digital economies and new and intelligent forms of mobility, if we want a managed reopening of borders and to understand each other by fighting stereotypes", said Elisabeth Guigou.
Eleonora Insalaco illustrated the results of a research of Anna Lindh revealing that "over 90% of people believe that Euro-Mediterranean cooperation - and we can also say that the new Agenda for the Mediterranean - can lead to concrete advantages for society and people in terms of education and training, youth employment and environmental sustainability".
Analyzing common values as well as obstacles to cooperation, Blanca Moreno-Dodson highlighted the desire of the entire region to achieve more stability and equality and the difficulties caused by the lack of 'south-south' dialogue. Inter-generational dialogue between decision-makers and young leaders in the region is "essential", according to Burak Yusma, who called for the involvement of youths on matters of the Agenda for the Mediterranean, because "decision-makers should listen to their solutions".
Among the main challenges of the southern shore of the Mediterranean in implementing the Agenda, Merna Shalash listed "terrorism, extremism, the lack of political stability" and migrations. "If we will succeed in dealing with these challenges, we will easily implement other objectives connected to the economy, climate change, investments".
According to Nada Abdelsamad, dialogue, to be effective, must start at the level of authorities. "The sharing of values must start at the highest level, not from citizens", said Abdelsamad.
Sana Al-Emam highlighted the importance of youth empowerment "in using media tools well to promote change". Josep Ferré stated that in the post-pandemic period, the national networks of the Anna Lindh Foundation have a "crucial role in making intercultural dialogue operational to promote inclusion and integration", to "fight populism and discrimination" and "ensure that governments maintain their pledges" on climate change.
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Pomilio Blumm