The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has approved a report that calls on the Commission to draw up a Macro-Regional Strategy for the Mediterranean. The scope of the proposed strategy is to support the regions facing financial and social challenges that cannot be effectively addressed by the regions or indeed countries on their own.

The report follows on the footsteps of the Danube Strategy and the Baltic Strategy, which were recently drawn up by the EU and are currently being implemented.

The EESC report was drawn up by Maltese EESC member Stefano Mallia together with Italian member Stefano Palmieri.

The report is the result of months of meetings and a public hearing in Italy. It calls on the Commission to develop a more integrated policy for the Mediterranean regions which must then be supported by a strong action plan that clearly identifies projects that will have a clear and concrete impact on the daily lives of the citizens of the region and that will help address the causes of the current uncertainty that is prevalent in the region.

The report specifically calls for Malta and Cyprus (as the two island states) to take a specific role in the development of the strategy.

While presenting the report to the EESC plenary, Mr Mallia said: “For too long the Mediterranean has suffered from an on-off approach. This has led to a failure of the EU’s policy in the Mediterranean region in spite of the fact that we continue to spend millions of euros every year. These initiatives have had some success, but they have not fully addressed the political, economic and social development goals initially set forth. What we are proposing with this strategy is that we get better value for the money being spent and that we start to register real socio-economic progress in the region. There is an urgent need for a strategy of this kind but it has to be concrete and of substance.”

According to the report, the Mediterranean Macro Regional Strategy should be based on three pillars of growth: smart growth (with a particular emphasis on blue growth), actively encouraging a knowledge-based economy supporting innovation and new technologies; sustainable growth, promoting a sustainable, greener and more competitive economy; and, finally, inclusive growth, promoting an economy which places strong emphasis on job creation and poverty reduction.

“The fact that the next two presidencies of the EU are Mediterranean countries (Greece and Italy) provides us with a unique opportunity to start working in earnest on the proposed strategy. This proposal also has the support of the European Parliament and the Committee of Regions. There should therefore be no reason for the Commission to delay the exercise. From our end, the EESC will over the coming months continue to push the Commission and the Council to set the wheels in motion. Our goal should be to have a strategy in place by the end of 2014,” Mr Mallia concluded.