UNITED NATIONS
CETMO has been linked to the United Nations (UN) since its inception. It was created in 1985 as a mandate of the Thessaloniki Conference held by the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in cooperation with the UN Regional Commission of Africa (UNECA) and Western Asia (ESCWA), to address the specific transport problems facing the Mediterranean Region. Since then, CETMO has been a UN Permanent Observer associated organisation.
These close links provide an expanded knowledge of trends, proposed policies and global challenges, as well as access to U.N. International Cooperation Framework and initiatives. Since then CETMO has actively participated in the Inland Transport Committee (ITC), and the Working Group on Transport Trends and Economics (WP5).
EUROPEAN UNION
In 1995 the EU established an encompassing Neighbourhood Policy, including North African and Eastern Mediterranean specific cooperation programmes. All transport multilateral cooperation initiatives, were integrated in 2005 in the EuroMed Transport Forum (ETF), where CETMO had a leading role defining its policy agenda.
CETMO provided analysis, framework and technical guidelines for the two first ETF’s extensive programs; REG-MED (Regulatory Framework Improvement), and DESTIN (Defining and Evaluating a Strategic Transport Infrastructure Network in the Western Mediterranean). It also coordinated the efforts to improve Euro-Maghreb transport interoperability and its compatibility with the EU’s Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).
UNION FOR THE MEDITERRANEAN (UfM)
In order to accelerate Mediterranean Cooperation, the UfM was created in 2008 as an amplified forum that encompassed the EU and North African and Eastern Mediterranean countries, as well as the Balkans.
CETMO has been involved since the inception of UfM: it defined and successfully promoted the Trans-Maghreb Multimodal Corridor, Motorways of the Sea programme (UfM-Mos), and conducted the regional logistics modernisation programme, LOGISMED, financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB). CETMO today has an ongoing collaboration with UfM, advocating specific transport policies and executing and coordinating regional transport and logistics projects.