Quotes

 "The EU and Morocco share similar opportunities and constraints when it comes to energy, which makes it important to support the progressive integration of our respective energy markets, as well as the joint development of renewable energy."

 “This is a key financing operation for Morocco [EIB’s contribution to the Green Morocco Plan]. It is designed to foster modern, sustainable and profitable farming that will drive growth and employment in the country. By promoting environmentally responsible irrigation of farmland, we are helping to give the younger generation a future.”

 “The European Union has granted financial support and accompanied the major structural health reforms undertaken by Morocco since 2001, in order to improve and ensure the access to equity and quality care for all the Moroccan citizens.” 

 “I notice with satisfaction that, similarly to the European Union, the promotion of gender equality is a political priority for the Moroccan government, and that it is very clearly committed to equality through the governmental Plan that we support financially.”

 “We are working effectively with the Moroccan government in several fields, but we have to do more and we need to work more and more directly with the regional authorities in order to better address local needs and to meet the citizens’ expectations of a more direct democracy.” 

 “Morocco is facing the crucial challenge of regionalisation, of giving a new and significant role to local and regional authorities. [It is therefore] important for us to be here now, to provide to our Moroccan friends the full support and cooperation of the Committee of the Regions and of the Mediterranean Assembly of Local and Regional Authorities”. The efforts put in place in the Arab Spring area to decentralise the institutional assets shows that there is no democracy without the factual involvement of local communities in the shaping and implementation of policies and rules.” 

“We have a once in a lifetime opportunity to build deep and lasting democracy and prosperity in the Southern Mediterranean – doing so will require vision, perseverance and a team effort from all of Europe's institutions.”

“Based on national prospects, the energy consumption in Morocco is estimated to grow approximately 3% per capita per year in the next 10 years. The Sustainable Energy Action Plan is planned to reduce the energy consumption of Salé by 20% by 2020 and correct also the estimated increase predicted at national level. This means to reduce the energy consumption by more than 50% with respect to a non acting scenario.”

“In Rabat, we initially had a request from the National Institute of Oncology to provide a masters course in medical physics. Medical physicists have been trained to work in hospitals, nuclear medicine, radiotherapy and radiology. Successful candidates are likely to be employed in a sector that suffers from a huge lack of skills. Among these students, some choose to undertake high-level research. And this is where Eumedconnect can be an advantage.”

“Within the framework of the cooperation between the EU and Morocco, the de-pollution of the Mediterranean constitutes a priority. The support of the EU in the national sanitation programme of Morocco reaches €90 million.”

“Merely opening up our [Moroccan] land border with Algeria would increase our GDP by two percentage points. We share certain problems: for example, ours is the region with the smallest number of books read per head of population. Before one can succeed at innovation, one must first address the issue of education. Education allows us to train researchers, academics and engineers.”

"This support programme to open up isolated populations [in Morocco] reinforces other EU support programmes in terms of road infrastructure such as the Mediterranean bypass and the development of the northern provinces. Beyond the expansion of road network, this programme is innovative because it will help to have a sustainable road infrastructure through a new maintenance policy, will reduce regional disparities and will consolidate the decentralization process."

"Our cooperation focuses on support to Morocco’s priority reform policies and strategies. This choice will be credible as long as Morocco intensifies the pace of implementation of its reforms and mobilizes the human and financial resources necessary for their success. Our partnership is both close and rigorous. We will strongly support any action towards the strengthening of social cohesion and the fight against poverty, which represent fundamental values of the EU.”

“We would like one day to see products made in Agadir Zone, using accumulation of origin rules from industries in the four member states, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia and Morocco.”

“As a sign of our privileged relationship, Morocco is the largest recipient of EU aid among the countries of the European neighborhood. We have allocated €580.5 million worth of funding for the National Indicative Programme 2011-2013. This represents an increase of nearly 20% of the budget. ”

“We are facing a risk inherent to any project dealing with small scale heritage not protected by law. In Marrakech, Morocco, fifty years ago there were more than a hundred fountains; today half have disappeared, or face neglect.”

“The national programme for rural roads is a perfect example of the kind of initiatives prioritised by the NIF, that is, financing projects that reduce regional disparities, improve local development and access to services, and make public resources more productive.”

“Opening up rural areas will put an end to the isolation of entire regions, meaning better access to schooling and healthcare, as well as a reduction in costs and an improvement in economic productivity.”

“The overall satisfaction with the workshop can be deducted from the feedback garnered and the high level of participation encountered during these three days. Participants declared that they acquired a lot of new knowledge, and that they would be able to use it in their daily work”

“We want to bring them back to life, and make them work again within their historical and social context; we want to bring people back to the hammam, especially young people, reconnecting the building with its unique social function in the neighbourhood.”

“Equal participation of women and men in all spheres of life is a crucial element of democracy. Only by the inclusion of all and determined actions will the Euro-Mediterranean region’s women be able to fulfil their ambitions and aspirations and, by extension, contribute towards the attainment of a common area of peace, stability and shared prosperity in the Euro-Mediterranean region” 

“Morocco continues to stand out through its vision and commitment at the heart of both the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Union for the Mediterranean.”

"At the end of the first phase, we started to feel a change in approach, before; it was always the project who took the initiative to send experts. Today, increasingly, it’s the beneficiaries who ask for our assistance.”

“The priority of EuroMed Heritage IV is the appropriation of cultural heritage by the populations within Mediterranean countries”