Boosting sustainable growth and quality jobs in Euromed: promoting entrepreneurship and tapping the potential of women and young people

Key points

The EESC:

• aims to foster entrepreneurship and quality job creation across the Mediterranean region, with a strong focus on harnessing the potential of women and young people to achieve more inclusive, resilient growth and shared prosperity;
• calls for the identification and removal of gender-related structural barriers in education, labour markets, and entrepreneurship, alongside awareness-raising campaigns to promote the benefits of diversity and to highlight female role models and achievements;
• emphasises the need to invest in education, skills development, and youth mobility, including enhanced vocational training, higher education, and broad participation in student exchange programmes to empower young people as valuable assets to the region;
• recommends encouraging girls and women to pursue STEM fields and acquire digital and financial skills, leveraging online and mobile learning to reduce regional disparities and improve equal access to training and education in remote areas;
• calls for improving working conditions and opportunities for young people and women, preventing discrimination and harassment, and enabling their participation and leadership in politics, business, and civil society;
• stresses the necessity of providing women and young entrepreneurs with proper access to finance, infrastructure, natural resources, legal ownership rights, and networks, including innovation ecosystems and entrepreneurial hubs, to enable their success;
• highlights the importance of legal certainty, anti-corruption efforts, formalisation of MSMEs, and the promotion of key sectors such as sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, digital economy, creative industries, and market connectivity projects—including energy market integration—to support economic development and entrepreneurship in the region.