Rabat – The 2020 5+5 Dialogue is set to take place on March 1-2 in Marrakech, according to Moroccan national TV channel 2M. The 8th ministerial meeting of the 5+5 member states will focus on “Migration and Development.”
The 5+5 Dialogue is a sub-regional forum for dialogue between ten countries. The Maghreb member countries are Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia, while the European nations are France, Italy, Malta, Portugal, and Spain.
The ministerial forum took place for the first time in 1990 in Rome. It was then only an unofficial regional forum for countries committed to cooperation in the Western Mediterranean.
The objective of the 5+5 Dialogue initiative is to reinforce cooperation between the ten countries on topics of mutual interest. “As a Trans-Mediterranean initiative, the “raison d’etre” of the dialogue is to ensure closer cooperation between the five EU Member States and the Five Maghreb Countries,” according to the Dialogue 5+5 official website.
The initiative aims to ensure cooperation between its members through political dialogue and cooperation by encouraging more effective resource management in order to strengthen interdependence and regional development.
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The agenda of 5+5 Dialogue focuses on migration, now and in the future. It also focuses on cooperation between the member states in matters of exchange of information, joint management of international borders, and irregular migration.
The Western Mediterranean initiative will focus on migration as a central issue. The countries will cooperate to protect the rights of migrants in the region and define agreed-upon forms of labor migration. The Western Mediterranean region is of strategic importance as a gate between Africa and Europe.
The 5+5 adopts a multidimensional approach towards achieving sustainable development in the region. The initiative, therefore, focuses on migration for development.
Morocco is the current chair country and France will replace the kingdom next year. The 5+5 Dialogue hosts many observer organizations including International Organisation for Migration (IOM), International Labour Organisation (ILO) and International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).
