The Mediterranean: a sea of challenges and opportunities

"When many challenges are shared, a shared policy response is needed. This is a crucial point, which is why bringing together governors of central banks from across the region is so important.”

You can listen to this episode in other languages by choosing your preferred audio track in the YouTube settings. The dubbing is done automatically and has not been reviewed by the Banco de España.

The Mediterranean: cooperation and dialogue for tackling shared challenges

For centuries, the Mediterranean has been much more than just a sea. Its waters have carried flows of goods, people, ideas and capital, linking ports, cities and civilisations across three continents. Goods, knowledge and cultures have travelled along its routes, helping to shape the region’s economic and social history.

In today’s increasingly interdependent world, the Mediterranean continues to be a hub for exchange and connection, but it also marks a divide between the countries along its shores.

In this episode of the CIENxCIEN podcast, Ana Comellas speaks to Roger Albinyana, Managing Director of the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), and Enrique Alberola, adviser in the Coordination Department and Chief Editor of the Banco de España Blog. They explore whether Mediterranean countries face common challenges that cut across these divides and how cooperation can help develop shared responses.

The Conference of Mediterranean Central Banks, organised by the Banco de España, IEMed, the OECD and the Union for the Mediterranean, provides a meeting place that carries on a deeply Mediterranean tradition: dialogue among those who have shared interests, opportunities and concerns. For the past decade, this forum has brought together central bank representatives from both sides of the Mediterranean to share experiences, strengthen cooperation and seek joint solutions to the economic and financial issues that have a direct impact on millions of people’s lives.

At a time of global fragmentation, uncertainty and geopolitical tensions, platforms for dialogue and mutual understanding become especially valuable. As Roger Albinyana notes, Mediterranean countries face many of the same challenges. As a result, they also need responses built on cooperation and mutual trust.

Central banks have a particularly important role to play in this effort. Beyond their traditional functions, they can build bridges between economies facing similar challenges and keep channels of cooperation open even when political positions diverge. As Enrique Alberola explains, central banks’ technical and specialist nature makes peer-to-peer exchanges invaluable for learning from shared experiences, anticipating risks and strengthening responsiveness against challenges that increasingly transcend national borders.

One of the main topics at this year’s conference was cross-border payments and remittances, a modern-day manifestation of the economic flows that have long connected the two shores of the Mediterranean. Millions of people have family, employment and financial ties that stretch across the sea, underscoring the need for more efficient, accessible and secure payment systems.

The episode also considers the deep interdependence between Mediterranean countries. Trade, investment, migration, technological innovation and the green transition all shape a shared reality in which decisions taken on one side of the Mediterranean have consequences for the other. Against this backdrop, understanding how goods, services and capital flow between countries is just as important as strengthening the channels for dialogue that help manage these links in a balanced and sustainable way.

Beyond the economic data and technical debates, the Mediterranean is still a shared story built on human connections. For centuries, its ports have been meeting places and hubs of exchange. Today, forums like the Conference of Mediterranean Central Banks carry on that tradition at institutional level.

In the face of shared challenges (such as climate change, migration and economic development), cooperation, knowledge-sharing and trust-building are essential to narrow differences and make progress towards common solutions.

Transcription (in Spanish) (206 KB)

Roger Albinyana

• Roger is Managing Director of IEMed, as well as a member of the Advisory Board of EMEA and General Secretary of FEMISE, two Euro-Mediterranean networks of economists. He holds a PhD in economic history from the University of Barcelona, where he teaches international economic policy, and regularly publishes papers and articles. He was Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the Catalan regional government (2013-16) and adviser on private sector development at the Union for the Mediterranean (2010-13).

Enrique Alberola

• Enrique is an adviser in the International Strategy and Cooperation Division and Chief Editor of the Banco de España Blog. He previously served as Chief Representative of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Representative Office for the Americas in Mexico City. At both the BIS and the Banco de España, he has led and coordinated several international research networks and organised numerous meetings and forums that have helped strengthen international cooperation between central banks.