MEDPRO dissemination workshop in Tunis

November 5-6th the MEDPRO team organized the first of its dissemination workshops in Tunis. Initiated before the Arab Spring, the MEDPRO project was to elaborate scenarios for the Mediterranean countries for the period up to 2030 based on different sets of policy options with respect to economic, social, environmental and energy policies. The scenarios distinguished on those that implied greater integration with the EU and those that implied greater regional integration and openness to the rest of the work were explored.  Scenarios that assumed alternatively unchanged policies and continued conflict were also elaborated.

The Tunis meeting gathered a select group of government officials, academics and other members of civil society. CASE was represented by Luc De Wulf, who has headed the work group on economic, trade and investment and Emmanuel Bergasse who was part of the experts developing the energy scenarios.  The presentations aimed at highlighting how the findings and policy options investigated would affect Tunisia. The discussion was lively and achieved a broad agreement of the type of policy options for Tunisia to regain the favorable growth path it had achieved until the Arab Spring, while paying greater attention to reducing the alarmingly high unemployment -particularly for women and youth-, improving governance and reducing the income inequality. The next MEDPRO dissemination exercise will take place in Egypt on December 8 and 9. CASE will be represented by Marek Dabrowski and Ahmed Ghoneim.