The enlarged Interministerial Conference “Creation of a Euromediterranean space of higher education” was held in Catania on 7-8 November, part of the programme of activities organized during the six months’ Italian Presidency of the EU. In the course of the conference, attended by political leaders, technical experts from the academic world in the Euromed area, and rectors and professors of the main European and Mediterranean universities, discussion focused on ways to improve university cooperation, by promoting the mobility of teachers, researchers and students, and especially by setting up a “Mediterranean network of universities” able to link universities on the southern shores of the Mediterrranean with Poles of excellence of the EU. The conference also provided an occasion, in view of current negotiations on the constitutional treaty of the EU, to develop reflection on the future policies and initiatives that the Communities and the member states should implement in the sector of higher education, training and research (a sector in which the Union’s function is and shall be that of supporting national prerogatives).
