2nd Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on Higher Education, Research and Innovation

The "Cairo Declaration", endorsed by the 1st Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference, held in Cairo, Egypt, on June 18, 2007, set the framework for Euro-Mediterranean cooperation in Higher Education and Research.

In the Union for the Mediterranean Ministerial Conference held in Marseille on November 4, 2008, the Ministers looked forward to the implementation and follow up of the Cairo Declaration by reinforcing the role of the Monitoring Committee for Euro-Mediterranean Cooperation in RTD (MoCo) and the prompt creation of an expert group on Higher Education with precise mandate to impulse the actions and raise the objectives of the Declaration. Based on these foundations, the preparation process at expert level was successfully concluded in Alicante, Spain, at the beginning of March 2010, where respective delegations finalised the conference paper to be adopted by Ministers at the second Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference in April 2010 in Slovenia.

The conference, which convenes for the first time under the framework of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), intends to address the urgent challenges and opportunities which the UfM has identified. With the Cairo Declaration as our framework, and in line with the sectors set by the Marseille and the Paris Declarations, we need to direct our efforts to advance cooperation in areas of high priority and great potential through an ad-hoc action plan with tangible proposals.

After a period of almost three years, we should assess the work that has been done so far and to agree how to address new challenges and opportunities that lay ahead of us. Commitments taken and concrete activities that we will agree upon could significantly advance our joint efforts to create the Euro-Mediterranean Area of Higher Education and Research.

Participants

The participation in the ministerial meeting is by invitation only, because of the limited number of places available. In order to gather policy-makers and experts focused on the higher education, research and innovation, the following composition of national delegations has been envisaged:

1. Minister responsible for Higher Education/Research,
2. Senior Official for Higher Education,
3. Senior official for Research,
4. Member of the Minister's Cabinet.

Other UfM Ministerial Confernences
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1. Union for the Mediterranean Meeting of Environment Ministers (Dubrovnik, 21-22 April 2010) - cancelled. 
2. Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) ministerial conference on food security, agriculture and rural development, Cairo (Egypt), 15-16 June 2010.
3. 2nd Union for the Mediterranean Summit (07/06/2010, at CCIB Centre Convencions Internacional Barcelona, Spain) - The senior official and expert meetings will be held on 5 and 6. The preparatory meeting for Foreign Office Ministers will take place on Sunday 6. The session with the participation of the Heads of State and Government will start on the morning of Monday 7. The closing ceremony will take place during the early afternoon on the same day.