The meetings at the EU institutions, attended by the EMUNI president, focused on the EMUNI student conference Research Souk, an EU Foresight Research Exercise, Erasmus Mundus and support to and from EMUNI to the DG EAC. They also included a debate of the opening of EMUNI through EU funding to the Western Balkans and candidate countries in the Union for the Mediterranean.

Joseph Mifsud was hosted by the the European Union, Committee of the Regions through an invitation of Luc Van den Brande,  Co-President of the Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly (ARLEM), the Director Lucio Gussetti  and  Head of Cabinet, Filippo Terruso to discuss cooperation which has started between EMUNI and ARLEM and to be presented in Agadir, Morocco in July 2010.

He also had meetings with Jocelyne Gaudin, DG Research, European Research Area-Knowledge based economy, with Teresa Oliveira, Policy Coordinator for the Southern Mediterranean Countries, DG Education and Culture and with Pascal Herry, Unit D3 'Regional Programmes.'

Funding Regime for the UFM

The Union for the Mediterranean should be provided with adequate funding, including a considerable increase in EU funds, to progress, MEPs are proposing. 

In a resolution drafted by French MEP Vincent Peillon, and adopted by 58-6 by the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, MEPs voiced their support for the UfM on the eve of its second summit, scheduled for June 7 in Barcelona.

The union has undergone a period of political stagnation since the Gaza conflict erupted in December 2008, despite the resumption of meetings involving ministers and senior officials in September 2009.

MEPs insist that regional conflicts - primarily the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, but also those in Cyprus and Western Sahara - should not limit progress towards sectoral and multilateral cooperation, although they believe that the UfM cannot be a complete success while conflicts are ongoing within it.

They also believe that the commitment of heads of state and government are needed to make the second summit a success for launching the UfM's institutions and to ensure that major projects are adequately funded.

The resolution acknowledges the limits of the EU's neighbourhood policy conducted with Mediterranean countries, noting that by stressing bilateral relations at the expense of a global approach, this has not helped contribute to integration and significant reform in terms of democratic progress.

The UfM, which was launched in Paris in July 2008, aimed to structure cooperation with Mediterranean countries on 6 major projects - civil protection, maritime and land highways, de-pollution of the Mediterranean, a Mediterranean solar energy plan, the Mediterranean Business Development Initiative and a Euro-Mediterranean university, EMUNI - and envisaged the creation of a permanent secretariat from the beginning of March.