ELIAMEP and Senior Policy Advisor, Cleopatra Kitti, participated in the Seventh Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Trade and Investment Forum. The forum, held on 10 December 2025 at the Palau de Pedralbes in Barcelona, discussed key considerations on Navigating Disruption, Building Integration: Reshaping Trade and Investment in the UfM region.
Ms Kitti contributed on the 1st panel, which focused on Global Trade Disruption and its Repercussions in the UfM Region. Several trade and geopolitical disruptions are generating uncertainty and provoking businesses, in particular SMEs, and economies around the world to reconsider their value chains, assess current trade agreements, and adopt more agile policy structure. The panel discussed the implications of these challenges for the UfM region and approaches to how the region can address them. In her intervention, Ms Kitti raised the importance of quality data collection and data integrity in informing policy design and investment decisions. She noted that the Mediterranean remains the least interconnected region in the world and access to capital for its SME businesses is costly and proposed a one stop data analysis platform and the creation of a Mediterranean Growth Fund for public and private capital collaboration.
n his introductory speech, Dr. Abdelaziz El Sherif, First Under Secretary of State/ Head of the Egyptian Commercial Service – Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade (Egypt), spoke about the importance of intra regional trade and highlighted Egypt’s economic progress and the importance it places on its reforms to attract investment and promote foreign Trade. Other contributors to this panel included: Mr. Yehia Houry, Chief Executive Officer – Flat6Labs (Egypt), who spoke about the importance of access to capital, networks and scalability a critical environment for start ups in the Mediterranean to thrive; Mrs. Zübeyde Ağsakalli, Head of Technology Center – Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (Türkiye), who explained how Turkey is prioritizing digitalization of businesses, especially SMEs by matching technological expertise to sectors across the economy; Dr. Younes Boumaaz, Professor of International Trade and Customs – Université Hassan 1er (Morocco), who stressed the necessity for logistics, customs modernization and digital interoperability across the region in order to be competitive and Mr. Emmanuel Noutary, General Delegate – ANIMA Investment Network (France), who referred to the practical approaches and case studies of connecting North African with EU businesses. IThe panel discussion elaborated further on propositions and solutions.
The richness of the discussion was captured in the forum’s deliberation minutes to include in UfM’s future policy proposals.
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