Despite the geographical proximity, less than 2% of EU FDI goes to the Mediterranean region, compared with 4.4% in the 12 acceding and accession countries, 7.8% in South-East Asia, and 10% in Latin America. The extremely low level of intra-regional economic integration is also striking – on average only 5% of Mediterranean countries’ external trade is intra-regional trade.
I believe strongly that addressing these challenges is not only in the interest of each of the economies concerned. It would also help to create the conditions for peace, stability and prosperity in this region, which are so important for the whole Mediterranean area and for Europe as a major Mediterranean partner.