[NEWS]Remarks by High Representative/Vice-President Kallas and Commissioner Šuica on the Pact for the Mediterranean

[-CosmiNNe]

High Representative/Vice-President Kallas  
The College adopted several initiatives today.  

First, we agreed on a new Pact for the Mediterranean. You just heard President von der Leyen's statement on the subject. We will go into the details shortly.  

We also adopted a Roadmap for Defence Readiness. I will present after this press conference, together with Executive Vice-President Virkkunen and Commissioner Kubilius. 

We also adopted a proposal for an ‘EU global climate and Energy Vision', which Executive Vice-President Ribera and Commissioners Hoekstra and Jørgensen will talk you through.  

And lastly, the College welcomed Pieter Hasekamp, Chairman of the independent European Fiscal Board. He briefed us on the Board's Annual Report. With those points covered, let me turn to the Pact for the Mediterranean.  

The geopolitical importance of the Mediterranean cannot be overstated. It has been at the top of our foreign policy agenda since day one of this Commission. From the fall of the Assad regime to the war in Gaza, the region remains on a knife's edge.  

Today, we have a window of opportunity to reframe the EU's relationship with the Southern Neighbourhood. Commissioner Šuica will go into more detail, but a few short points from me.  

The Pact includes more than a hundred projects, including support for 5G and data centres as well as many youth-focussed schemes. Commissioner Šuica has been working hard to make these happen – she will give you more details. We want to support young people in our partner countries with better opportunities through training, jobs and stronger local economies.  

The common theme is to bring people together. This itself includes a range of initiatives, from rail, road and maritime links to subsea cables carrying data between our regions.  

This is also an opportunity to address shared security threats better. We see similar challenges in the Mediterranean Sea that we see in the Baltic and North Seas. Shadow fleet ships pose major security risks to both our regions. The EU needs to work closer with the region to discuss these topics, including via a new regional forum dedicated to security.  

In practice, this means: more cooperation, including through the EU's military and civilian missions in the region; sharing situational awareness; and more coordination on common security threats.  

There is also potential to work closer together on disaster preparedness, including on an AI early warning system and a new firefighting hub for the region.  

The Pact builds on existing cooperation in the region. That is why we will also launch in November in the margins of our meeting with the Union for the Mediterranean.  

A lot has changed in the thirty years since the EU and the Mediterranean countries established a regional partnership. Today we adopt a blueprint to make our cooperation more focussed on the future. 

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/da/speech_25_2393