The EU wants students from the bloc’s southern neighbors to join its Erasmus exchange program, it announced Thursday as part of a broader plan to bolster Europe’s presence in the Mediterranean region.
The inclusion of non-EU students from countries in Africa and the Middle East is part of the “Pact for the Mediterranean”, which also includes a proposal to double the EU’s budget for this region to €42 billion.
The bloc’s Mediterranean partners include Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria and Tunisia.
European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen outlined the three sections of the pact in a statement: People, economy, and the link between security, preparedness and migration.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told journalists the pact includes more than 100 projects, ranging from support for 5G networks and improved mobile connectivity in the region, to youth-focused programs and “rail, road, maritime links to subsea cables carrying data between our nations.”
The EU’s Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Šuica said the pact aims to “connect young people” and broaden the Erasmus Plus and Horizon Europe programs, calling it the “Mediterranean University.” The pact would also help universities in the region develop joint degrees and programs with their counterparts in the EU.
“We will also scale up talent partnerships with Morocco, with Tunisia and with Egypt, and facilitate issuance of visas in particular for students” from these countries, Šuica said.
On migration, Šuica called it the “greatest shared challenge” and a “shared opportunity” for the two sides. She said the pact will support efforts to prevent illegal departures and fight smugglers in the EU’s southern neighbors, while creating legal pathways “to address Europe’s labor needs.”
“Our deeper cooperation is a strategic choice, and it is reflected in the creation of [the] new DG MENA [the Directorate-General for the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf] and also in the … Commission’s proposal to double the budget for this region to €42 billion in the next programming period,” Šuica said.
“We have so much to offer to those countries in terms of equal partnership. We are interested in the cooperation regarding energy, connectivity, critical raw materials,” Kallas added. “Our proposal is much more positive than that of the other geopolitical players, but we really need to work on that,” Kallas added, referring to competition from China and Russia in the region.
Von der Leyen described the Mediterranean as a “bridge between continents for people, for goods, for ideas.”
“The truth is that Europe and the Mediterranean cannot exist without each other,” she added.
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