The Annual Conference of the project HOMERe for 2019, took place in Marseille on 21 June 2019 under the theme “Employment and Employability – Adequacy to the Mediterranean labor market”.
The Conference was organized by HOMERe France, HOMERe Regional Consortium, the University of Western Brittany, BUSINESSMED, the Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association (EMEA) and the Euro-Mediterranean Network for Economic Studies (EMNES), in partnership with the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean.
The event had received the label of Side-Event of the “Sommet des Deux Rives”. (Summit of the Two Shores). The participants of the HOMERe Conference, representing institutions from 12 Mediterranean countries, presented the following recommendations to the Summit of the Two Shores:
- Maintain the regional cooperation at the ministerial Level in the fields of higher education and vocational training as a success model put in place in the Mediterranean countries.
- Share information at Ministerial level using a multicultural approach and involving a greater participation of the private sector.
- Encourage employability in emerging sectors such as blue, green and circular economy.
- Involve youth in formulating education/labour policies in each national economy of the Med Countries.
- Encourage circular mobility of educated graduates could act as a catalyzer and tool of peacebuilding and peacekeeping, preventing conflicts within the Med countries, through mediation and resolution. This will also have a positive impact on cooperation and trade.
- Streamline visa procedures or residence permits for study and professional purposes. This also includes the need of a rigorous but faster recognition of Mediterranean Countries schools’ titles and qualifications.
- Develop cross-borders internships opportunities within the public and private sector and ensure a follow-up and a career placement after completion.
- Ensure an efficient management of the labour market through a continuous matching of the supply and demand by Governments, and via raising the role of private sector stakeholders, Business Support Organisations and Civil Society Organisations.
- Encourage a more structured public-private dialogue to allow a more adherent policy-making to the needs of the stakeholders.
The Summit of the Two Shores, is an initiative of the French Republic to strengthen ties between the two shores of the Mediterranean, bringing the 5 + 5 countries together (Portugal Spain, France, Italy, Malta, Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya). On 23 June 2019 on Marseille, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the 5+5 countries signed the “Commitments for a new ambition in the Mediterranean” in order to implement the projects the civil society suggested and provide a collective response to the common challenges in the Mediterranean.
