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On 30-31 May, 2016 the ETYK Cypriot trade union hosted financial unions from Spain, Portugal, Italy, Malta, Greece and Cyprus, gathering for the first meeting of the newly set up UNI Med Finance. This new structure, part of UNI Europa Finance, brings together the union representatives of the banking and financial sectors in the Euro-Mediterranean countries.

The assembly was a concrete result of the 2015 UNI Finance World Congress, during which the foundations were laid for the reactivation of a structure for the Mediterranean countries.  Due to the complexities of linguistic and legislative fragmentation amongst the countries represented, along with the political turmoil that took place in North Africa following the Arab spring, the activity of this area had slowed down. The new structure will be immediately integrated into UNI Europa by bringing proposals from the Mediterranean areas, in particular with regard to the study on the impacts of digitilisation in the financial sector.

The Congress concluded with the appointment of Mauro Bossola, Deputy Secretary General of the Italian union FABI, as President of UNI MED Finance. "This Trade Union coordination structure is very useful, especially now. The banking groups of the Mediterranean European countries are living a phase of profound transformation and common difficulties. With this organisation we will make our voices heard in the EU institutions to protect all bank workers in Southern Europe, formulating concrete proposals and also by posing as interlocutors of areas adjacent to the Mediterranean, primarily the Balkans and Arab countries", said Bossola.
On the same occasion,  Loizos Hadjicostis (Etyk, Cyprus) and William Portelli (Mube, Malta) were appointed as Vice Presidents and Mario Ongaro (Fisac ​​Cgilas, Italy), as Secretary.