Five days of intensive contact and commitment for 27 young leaders from across the Euro-Med region have come to an end but the Policy Recommendations they produced will be pursued with a number of international bodies including the European Commission and the European Parliament.
For the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies this is the third week-long Seminar in two years. This Seminar was transferred from in-person to online as a result of Covid-19. While going virtual demanded reduced contact hours, high quality training and group work were retained.
The Seminar took place over the course of five days last week (25 to 29 January 2021) during which the trainees had unique access to experienced global leaders, EU policy-makers, media mentors and influential peer networks from politics, business and civil society, with the overall aim to build the participants’ capacity for shaping policy and media narratives.
The 27 young leaders from 18 countries including Syria, Libya, Morocco, Finland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Spain and Malta engaged in workshops on elaborating policy recommendations under the mentorship of Members of the European Parliament.
The keynote opening speech was delivered by the President of Malta, H.E. George Vella, under whose tenure as Foreign Minister, the YMV programme was launched at the Anna Lindh Med Forum held in Malta in 2016.
The President of Club de Madrid, Former President of Slovenia Danilo Tὔrk participated in a conversation with participants while the Final High-Level Panel moderated by MEDAC Director Prof. Stephen Calleya consisted of Tarja Halonen, former President of Finland; Miriam Dalli, Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Sustainable Development; Henrike Trautmann, Acting Director of DG Near, EC; Bernie Mizzi, Director at CHSMC and Head of Chiswick House School and Michael Kὄhler, Deputy Director General, DG ECHO, EC. Both latter sessions were broadcast live on Facebook on the .
The participants, in inter-regional teams worked on designing, formulating and advocating for a policy proposal on one of four selected Sustainable Development Goals - SDG4: Quality Education; SDG8: Decent Work and Economic Growth; SDG10: Reduction of Inequality and SDG16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.
In addition to the co-organizers – MEDAC and the Anna Lindh Foundation, the World Leadership Alliance: Club de Madrid is an important and constant partner of the Seminar. The programme also involves co-partners of the YMV programme such as the British Council and is funded by the European Union.
