The European Parliament adopted a report calling for the implementation of projects of the Union for the Mediterranean (UFM), after two years of stagnation.

Heads of State and Government, meeting on 7 June in Barcelona, provide the appropriate funding agency projects and strengthen the institutions on which it stands, according to the report.

The UfM has undergone a period of political stagnation since the Gaza conflict of December 2008, even though meetings of ministers and senior officials resumed in September 2009.

UFM including upgrading the Erasmus Mundus programme for the Mediterranean and the creation of a Mediterranean "Erasmus Junior", to expand educational exchanges between the Member States of the UfM, believe MEPs.

Parliament's resolution proposes that the secretariat be given increased funding to enable it to work properly.The secretariat will have to liaise with the European Commission and in particular EuropeAid and the EIB, a major funder of the UfM.

In the longer term, MEPs want to see a considerable increase in the resources for the UfM in the EU's next long-term budgetary plans, for 2014-2020. The resolution also proposes the creation of a Euromediterranean investment and development bank.

The UfM, launched in July 2008 in Paris, was intended to revitalise the Barcelona process by structuring cooperation with the Mediterranean countries around six major projects (civil protection, maritime and land highways, de-pollution of the Mediterranean Sea, a Mediterranean solar energy plan, the Mediterranean Business Development Initiative and a Euromediterranean university) and envisaging the creation of a permanent secretariat from the beginning of March 2010. It did was created and it has its headquarters in Barcelona.