A consortium of European business organisations launched today “Invest in Med”, a 12 million EUR project – co-financed by the European Commission – aiming at encouraging European investments in the Mediterranean region and developing solid links between Med companies and their European counterparts.
The project – which will run for 36 months involving the 27 EU Member States and the 9 Southern ENPI partner countries (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria and  Tunisia) – has the ambition to foster the volume and quality of Euro-Mediterranean trade and foreign direct investment, as well as to contribute to a sustainable economic development of the area.

A meeting was organised at the Head Office of UMCE-BUSINESSMED in Tunis with a delegation from MEDEF (France) on Thursday, December 2007. The delegation included Mr Thierry Courtaigne (General Director - MEDEF INTERNATIONAL), Mr Eric Hayatt (President – Tunisia Comitee- MEDEF INTERNATIONAL), Mr Bertrand Furno (Ecnomic Advisor- Embassy of France in Tunisia), Ms Julie Benoist (MEDEF INTERNATIONAL) and Mr Tarek Cherif (President- France Comitee- UTICA)

The meeting dealt mainly with the organisation of the Mediterranean Competitiveness Day jointly by MEDEF and UMCE-BUSINESSMED on 3rd and 4th July 2008 in Marseille which will gather all the partners from Europe and the South Mediterranean
 

The Union of Mediterranean Confederations of Enterprises (UMCE-BUSINESSMED) participated to the European Union-Africa Summit which took place in Lisbon on December 7th and 8th 2007.  The organisation was represented by Mr Jacques Jean SARRAF, President of UMCE-BUSINESSMED, M. Hédi Djilani Vice-President and Mrs Monia SKHIRI, Secretary General.

UMCE-BUSINESSMED Secretariat received on Monday, December 3rd 2007 at its Head Office in Tunis, a delegation from the Union of Employers of Serbia. The delegation included Mr Rato Ninkovic, President and Mr Dejana Kuzmic, Secretary General..
Mrs Monia Skhiri, Secretary General, opened the meeting by welcoming the guests and continued with a brief presentation of UMCE-BUSINESSMED, its mission, its objectives and its founder members as well as the observers and associated members.

Mr Jacques Jean Sarraf, President of the Union of Mediterranean Confederations of Enterprises UMCE-BUSINESSMED, heading a delegation of UMCE-BUSINESSMED confederation member Presidents from the two shores of the Mediterranean, granted to  H.E Mrs Benita Ferrero Waldner, (European Commissioner, in charge of External Relations and the European Neighbourhood Policy) the Award “Blue of the Mediterranean” for 2007, at the Head office of the European Commussion in Brussels on october 22nd 2007.

Mr. Jacques Jean Sarraf, President of the “Union of Mediterranean Confederations of Enterprises” has participated to the opening of the fifth annual conference “Laboratory of the Mediterranean” organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Milan with the support of the Italian Government, on Monday July 16, in the famous Mezzanotte Palace. Mr. Romano Prodi, the Italian Prime Minister opened the conference in presence of the Egyptian Prime Minister and several Italian and Mediterranean ministers as well as several high responsible of different economic sectors. The conference is held within the frame of the public private partnership in order to assess the economical policies and the business relations in the Mediterranean Sea.