Euro-Med cooperation after COVID-19: civil society organisations key to keeping the economy and society running

The EESC's December plenary session featured a debate on the reconstruction and resilience of the Euro-Mediterranean region following the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on digital literacy.

Highlighting the key role played by regional cooperation and dialogue and by the network of local civil society organisations in particular, the Committee's president Christa Schweng said that the Union for the Mediterranean and the Anna Lindh Foundation were very important partners for the EESC and two major pillars of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership.

Álvaro Albacete Perea, deputy secretary-general of the Union for the Mediterranean, and Josep Ferré, executive director of the Anna Lindh Euro Mediterranean Foundation for Dialogue Between Cultures, stressed just how crucial it was to strengthen the relationship between the EU and the Southern Mediterranean region.

Digitalisation is key for economic and social progress across the Euro-Mediterranean region. The own-initiative opinion on Digital transition in the Euro-Mediterranean region, drawn up by Dolores Sammut Bonnici and adopted at the plenary session, points out that it is important to reduce the digital divide between individual countries, between urban and rural areas and between generations. (mp)