EUMEDIS stands for EURO-MEDiterranean Information Society. This term refers to an initiative that is founded by the Commission of European Communities in an attempt to interconnect the Euro-Mediterranean communities. The basic target of the initiative is to implement informational and technological interrelations among European Union member states and twelve Mediterranean countries.

Historical Background

EUMEDIS is the largest regional project undertaken by the European Commission in the development of the global information society. EUMEDIS aims at reducing the region’s technological gap vis-à-vis the European Union, and implementing information and technological interrelations among the EU member states and the twelve Mediterranean countries, including Egypt.

The EUMEDIS initiative is part of the framework of regional activities for which the European Commission, under the MEDA II programme (2000-2006), has allocated around 14% of the total budget, which amounts to 5.35 billion euros.

Procedures carried out through EUMEDIS partnership:

The Information Society Development Office (ISDO) at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) invited the following entities:

Organizations and companies (governmental, non-governmental, private) working in the field of healthcare, electronic commerce, tourism, culture, industrial development, or education.
Information technology companies.
Universities, research and educational institutes.

To participate in the EURO-MEDiterranean Information Society (EUMEDIS) initiative that funds regional information society projects in the following sectors:

Healthcare networks.
Electronic commerce.
Research applied in industry, business and innovation.
Tourism and cultural heritage.
Education.

Proposals were evaluated by the European Commission (EC) according to their relevance and potential impact on the EURO-MEDiterranean Information Society. The overall budget allocated for the five sectors is 65M Euro.

Proposed projects had to be regional and had to include at least two European partners. Participants can either propose their own project ideas or join existing project ideas that are found at the following URLs: http://www.isdo.gov.eg/, http://europa.eu.int/information_society/index_en.htm

The deadline for submitting complete project proposals to the EC was January 22^nd 2001

For more information please contact the Information Society Development Office (EUMEDIS Focal Point in Egypt), Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Ahmed Orabi St., Sphinx Square, Mohandesen, Giza, Egypt Fax:+20-2-3444534 E-mail:shashem@mcit.gov.eg