For her first trip abroad as the EU’s Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen chose Ethiopia - the capital of the African Union.

The messaging was right in its symbolism: Europe may finally appreciate the importance of Africa as an equal partner in driving political stability and economic prosperity for both continents…

Thank you Cyprus Mail for publishing my opinion piece defending good governance in Cyprus and those practicing it. We need reforms and a culture shift. Success should be about trust and reputation. Sustainable wealth follows.

My country Cyprus has been in the spotlight in the Financial Times and other international media this week because of misuse of its ‘investment for passport’ scheme - the golden passport visa programme designed on the same lines as a number of other OECD and EU countries.

What is clear to me is that the problem is not a lack of rules. Rather, the problem is a lack of oversight, exacerbated by a culture that defines success by materialistic wealth. This not just a Cypriot challenge; it is an international governance challenge…

The new EU leadership calls for a Green Deal. The EIB shifts financing focus to clean energy sources; the ECB looks at Financial Stability and Climate Change with new taxonomies and methodologies for capital and risk weighting.

In the region, the East Med Gas Forum is forming its governance structure. Its success will lie in how decisions will be made; will it align its standards to those of Europe, and how will it create the framework for private, public and institutional capital to deploy dynamism and knowhow to create a regional gas market?

Since 2002, the OECD and G20 governments have officially recognised the importance of financial literacy as a core component of the financial empowerment of individuals and the overall stability of our societies and economies. We have significant scope to meet targets of financial literacy to enjoy a respectable quality of life.

Through authentic experience as an entrepreneur, mother, and active citizen, I am keen to share learnings and tools to bridge the gap of financial literacy amongst women, who face unequal access to pay, rights and respectable pensions around the world and in my region, the Mediterranean…

Two significant trade agreements were signed recently – both are good news for openness, multilateralism and trade.

The first, EU-Mercosur, will open the way for trade on goods and services between the EU and the Mercosur trade bloc, which comprises Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.

The EU is the biggest foreign investor in Mercosur countries, with an investment value of 381 billion euros in 2017…

Looking forward to speaking about mutual economic growth in the Euro and Arab Med region alongside May Chidiac tomorrow at the International Arab Banking Summit in Rome.

Follow the updates on Twitter @UABonline.

How is it that Cyprus, a Mediterranean country full of citrus groves, imports lemons from Argentina? The fact is, there are fundamental flaws in the way we grow citrus, and how we trade it, en route to our kitchens…

Click here to read some of the points I will raise in my speech on Euro-Arab economic growth, along with ideas on how to improve intra-regional collaboration and trade, at the upcoming International Arab Banking Summit to be held in Rome on 25 June. 

The Mediterranean Women Mediators Network (MWMN), which has recently been launched across the region as an Italian initiative with support from the UN, speaks volumes about the need to engage women around the world in conflict-ridden societies – to mediate, negotiate and witness the implementation of peace…

From Yemen to Syria and Libya, from the Med to Latin America, it seems the Cold War paradigm is playing out once more. But now the way is also open for ‘odd alliances’ that have not existed in the past but which threaten to shape the present…

I took part in three conversations in three countries in three different sectors last week – all of them about data and governance.

In Beirut, at a meeting with the Union of Arab Banks, we discussed how perspectives on the dynamics of the Arab region could change if misconceptions were to be remedied with quality data…

I am writing this blog while the Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s flagship Ibrahim Governance Weekend is taking place in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

This annual event convenes prominent African political and business leaders plus representatives from civil society and institutions, as well as Africa’s major international partners, to debate issues of critical importance to the continent. The focus for 2019 is youth, mobility and African migration…

It’s a fact that we still live in a male-dominated world. As proof, a World Bank Report found that of 187 countries examined, only six have equal rights for women and men…

I constantly find myself in the position of having to explain why principles of integrity should guide performance and define reputation. So I was interested to read Sarah Gordon’s account of covering the City for 20 years in the Financial Times…

Walking through the Pompidou Centre in Paris recently, surrounded by the abundance of creativity that defines artistic expression, deploying all sorts of techniques and materials, a thought struck me: the immediacy of the relationship between the artist and the public…

In advanced economies education for boys and girls is considered a given. But it is not the case in front line markets or in developing economies…

As southern EU country leaders are about to meet in Cyprus this coming Monday January 29, 2019, they should better discuss why we still have girls out of school. Greece has the highest percentage of girls out of school, followed by Cyprus.

Lebanon, like many countries in the Med, have in-built resilience in their cultural DNA. Lebanon is also an entrepreneurial nation with a large active and enlightened diaspora. With the war in Syria, Lebanon has been incurring significant inflows of refugees hosted over the last 8 years in its cities and rural communities. Recent data analysis show Lebanon’s almost flat economic growth rate and a creeping unemployment rate. Women and girls are a most important socio-economic component to ensure growth, stability and peace.

It has been more than 5 years since I founded the Mediterranean Growth Initiative, boldly advocating the merits of the Mediterranena as an economic space in global trade and delivering real-time date analysis to support policy thinking and doing in the region. At the start ofthis year, we are launching new work, focusing on a series of infographics and data driven analysis on education and gender across the Mediterranean region - starting with Morocco.

Our collaboration agreement with the CMI is testament to shared vision, validated methodology and sense of purpose. It speaks to the need for informed policy making, but equally important the need for governments and multilateral institutions to benchmark impact of policy on citizenry, having the tools to improve and align policy with real time information. Read more in my 2019 MGI.online founder's message above.

Wishing you all a very happy new year,

Cleopatra