The President of ORU Fogar Calls for Joint Action by Mediterranean Regions

The President of the Regional Council of Rabat-Salé-Kénitra and President of ORU Fogar, Rachid El Abdi, actively participated in the MedCat Days 2025, held in Barcelona from July 3 to 5. This initiative, organized by the Government of Catalonia and the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), aims to strengthen Euro-Mediterranean cooperation from a regional level.

In a context marked by international instability, El Abdi made a direct call to European regions to move from reflection to action. “In these times of instability and shifting balances, it is essential to establish solid and stable relations between both shores of the Mediterranean,” he stated during the intervention at the session on multilevel cooperation.

For the President of ORU Fogar, the time has come to implement concrete projects: “Beyond dialogue processes, we must act: with programs, plans, investments… in every possible direction. The urgency is real.”

At one point in his speech, El Abdi highlighted a parallel between the historical processes experienced by Europe and those currently facing Morocco. “Today in Morocco, we are receiving migratory flows similar to those experienced by Europe decades ago. Likewise, we are carrying out cooperation projects with Sub-Saharan Africa that resemble those once promoted by Europe,” he explained.

Rachid El Abdi also emphasized that in his region, Rabat-Salé-Kénitra in particular, and in Morocco in general, significant progress is being made in technological innovation and digital transformation. These are value-creation dynamics commonly seen in Europe, but which would have been unimaginable in Morocco just a few years ago.

The President of ORU Fogar emphasized the importance of long-term vision: “If your interest in Europe, a few years ago, was the development of North Africa, then that is now the same interest we have in relation to Sub-Saharan Africa. This is a chain. And we must be fully aware of it to continue advancing territorial and regional development at all levels.”

El Abdi stressed that regions have a central role in these processes, highlighting the cooperation currently being developed between Moroccan regions and those of Sub-Saharan Africa. “This territorial work is underway, from the bottom up, with realism and commitment,” he affirmed.

ORU Fogar’s participation in MedCat Days 2025 reinforces its role as the global voice of regional governments and as a key actor in decentralized and interregional cooperation processes in the Euro-Mediterranean space.