2020 marked a milestone celebration for the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation and dialogue with the 25th anniversary of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, otherwise known as the Barcelona Process, launched on 28 November 1995. Looking back, the creation of the Barcelona process seemed to mark a zenith of a strong regional transformation towards cooperation and multilateralism between both shores of the Mediterranean. But as we are taking stock of what has been achieved in the last 25 years as well as reflecting on the future of Euro-Mediterranean dialogue, the world as we know it is rapidly changing in the face of unprecedented challenges and pushes us to rethink the systems that we depend on.

Indeed, in the span of the same year, the pandemic of COVID-19 has spread to every corner of the world and has pushed us into a historic crisis, the severity of which has not been seen in almost a century. The socio-economic repercussions of this crisis will be extremely far-reaching, and will likely unfold for years to come, exposing and exacerbating vulnerabilities and inequalities within and among countries.