EU cooperation, while providing a tailor-made mix for each partner country’s needs, offers a wide toolbox to help create economic opportunities.

The main instrument to implement these actions is the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI). Out of €10.8 billion allocated for the region via this programme, nearly €4.2 billion has been dedicated so far to socio-economic cooperation. This figure will rise before the end of the current budget period, and is expected to reach around 50% of the total allocation for the Southern Neighbourhood overall. 

The European Commission organised a first edition of  ‘EU Med means business’ – Shaping the future of entrepreneurship in the South’ on 21-22 May. The participants developed recommendations to policy makers, and then voted in order to identify their twelve top priorities for action regarding investment, entrepreneurship and job creation. 

These will be used in preparation of future EU approaches, but will also be transmitted to decision makers in the region by the European Commission and through the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), and may be updated in the future.