MEDiterranean PROspects

Dr. Frederic Blanc is currently the General Manager of the Femise, euromed network of Economics institutes, supported by the European Commission. He is also Chief Economist of the Institut de la Mediterranee (since October 2001, French NGO localised in Marseilles which coordinates the Femise network jointly with ERF since 1997). PhD in 1996, A. von Humboldt fellow (post-doc in 1997 in Frankfurt am Main, Goethe Universität), he entered then Institut de la Mediterranee in 1997. He took the responsibility of the Femise project in 2001, became Team Leader in 2005, when the Femise was transformed into a NGO. Contributor to all Femise Euromed reports of which the 2009 reports on Mediterranean Countries Facing the Crisis, he also contributes to Plan Bleu – EIB study, “Climate change and energy in the Mediterranean” (2008), coordinates the Femise research on “the Challenge of the employment in the Mediterranean Countries (2007), contributes to World Bank Institute researches on Knowledge Economies in Mena Region with Prof. Reiffers (2003), to IFRI report for European Commission DG Trade, “The World Trade in 21st century” (2002).

Responsible of Socioeconomic Development Department at the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed). He was Responsible for the Middle East and North African region at the Consortium for Foreign Trade Promotion of Catalonia (COPCA), belonging to the Catalan Ministry of Innovation, Universities and Enterprise. Direct responsibility on the offices in Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Iran operating in all the countries of this region. He was Researcher at the University Institute of European Studies (IUEE) of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) analyzing relations of the EU with the Mediterranean and economic tendencies in the area. 1998-99 Working for the Spanish Foreign Trade Institute (ICEX) in the Spanish Commercial Office in Istanbul (Turkey).

Graduated at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, he received a Master degree in economics from the University College of London (UK) and a Doctoral degree in economics from the University of Venice. He is presently assistant professor of economics at the University Statale of Milan, associate researcher at the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) of Milan and affiliate scientist at the Euromediterranean Centre for Climate Change (CMCC). His main interests are focused on climate-change policy and modelling with particular emphasis on negotiation aspects of international environmental agreements and on optimal policy design considering adaptation and mitigation options. He is currently involved in EU projects like CIRCE, SESAME and CLIMATECOST aiming at climate change economic impact assessment in the Mediterranean regions.

Carlo SESSA is President of ISIS – Institute of Studies for the Integration of Systems of Rome. Before joining ISIS in 1983, he has conducted research at NYU, where he worked with Nobel Prize winner Wassily Leontieff. He was the Coordinator of several EU research projects, in the 5th, 6th and 7th Framework Programmes, in the fields of transport, urban issues and environment. In this context, he organised several participatory foresight exercises, involving panels of experts and citizens.

Prof. Pantelis Capros heads the E3MLab of ICCS. He is a Professor of Energy Economics and Operation Research at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of National Technical University of Athens. He has built and used a variety of large-scale mathematical models and has more than 20 years professional experience of consultancy in the domain of energy and economic policy. For the MEDPRO project, E3MLAB will use and apply the GEM-E3 general equilibrium model. In particular, the model version developed already for the integrated FP6 research project CIRCE studying impacts of climate change on the Mediterranean economic and ecological system.

Luc De Wulf, a Belgian national obtained his economic degree at the Katholieke Universiteit van Leuven, Belgium, and a PhD in Economics from Clark University, Worcester, Mass., USA. After a two-year teaching assignment at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, he joined the International Monetary Fund, where he worked both in the Fiscal Affairs and the Asian Departments. He transferred to the World Bank in 1988, where he worked in both the African and Middle Eastern Departments as macro economist with a focus on fiscal and trade issues. Upon his retirement from the World Bank in 2000, he worked as consultant with the Trade Department and WBI. In that capacity he managed the Diagnostic Trade Integration Studies for Mauritania and Senegal, and supported a variety of customs modernization initiatives financed by the World Bank and other bilateral development agencies. He is the author of numerous scientific articles that appeared in professional journals. More recently he co-edited with Jose Sokol, two books: Customs Modernization Initiatives (World Bank 2004) and Customs Modernization Handbook (World Bank 2005). The latter publication is available in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Chinese and Vietnamese.