IFAP – Copa-Cogeca Seminar on the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership: Building Capacity for Cooperation

On October 28 and 29, agricultural leaders from farmers’ organisations in Europe and the Mediterranean are meeting to discuss the potential of agricultural projects in the EU-Mediterranean Partnership. One of the priorities of the French EU Presidency, the EU Mediterranean Partnership has fallen to the wayside in the midst of the global financial turmoil. IFAP and Copa-Cogeca call on the EU and Mediterranean governments to give a much higher priority to agricultural cooperation in the Mediterranean Basin.

In 2007, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, launched the “Union for the Mediterranean" project - an initiative to reinforce Euro-Mediterranean partnership. To follow up on this initiative in the interests of farmers’ organisations, the Mediterranean Farmers’ Committee of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers joined with EU farmers and cooperatives of Copa-Cogeca to discuss priorities for agricultural projects in the context of this initiative and to strengthen cooperation between the two shores of the Mediterranean.