Réseau Méditerranéen Ecoles Ingénieurs (RMEI)

The Réseau Méditerranéen des Ecoles d'Ingénieurs (RMEI) was set up in June 1997 at the initiative of the Groupe Ecole Supérieure d’Ingénieurs de Marseille (ESIM), an organisation run by the Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie Marseille-Provence ( CCIMP: Marseille-Provence Chamber of Commerce and Industry).

Following the first General Assembly in 1997 at Sophia Antipolis (France), the RMEI has held this annual meeting successively in Barcelona (1998) , Tunis (1999), Istanbul (2000), Rabat (2001), Madrid (2002), Patras (2003), Genoa (2004), Algiers (2005), Izmir (2006l), Marseille (2007), Hammamet (2008), Rome (2009), Thessaloniki (2010), Rabat (2011) and Venice-Padua (2012).

Since 2001, the RMEI has become the network that associates the engineering schools and universities of the Community of Universities of the Mediterranean (CUM), an official UNESCO body.

In 2007, the RMEI adopted a legal status under French law (association under the French law of 1901) which has given it more autonomy and which facilitates the procedures for collaboration within the framework of partnerships between active members and with associate members, local authorities and industry.

The RMEI is run by a bureau with 7 members and administered by a Board of Administration with 10 members.

During the Michelangelo workshops of April 2012, was formalized the creation of the GAMe structure, acronym for Giovani Ambasciatori Mediterranei. This structure is run entirely by students and has correspondents in most countries covered by the RMEI.

At its meeting in May 2013, the office has agreed to host a new college i.e. the Mediterranean Network of Management Schools RMEM, within the RMEI.

Since its foundation, the RMEI has enjoyed the support of the CCIMP (Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie Marseille-Provence), the Ville de Marseille (city council), the Conseil Général des Bouches du Rhône (council for the département) and the Conseil Régional de Provence- Alpes- Côte d'Azur (regional council). It is supported by UNESCO (Chair 651 Innovation and Sustainable Development) and, since 2010, by the Municipality of Civitavecchia where is located the GAMe’s office.

Since 2013, the RMEI includes two colleges: the historical college of engineering schools and the RMEM college for management schools -Schools of architecture are now considering the possibility to form a third college – and the GAMe structure. On January 2014, the RMEI is 98 members in 16 countries having a Mediterranean culture.

Since its foundation, the RMEI has sought to valorise the specific assets of the Mediterranean with the aim of enhancing its impact, by reinforcing the links between faculties, schools, universities and other partners in the Mediterranean region :
- a historic Mediterranean identity that is culturally diverse and based on the sea that has long been a vector of commercial exchanges and activities, and the cradle of great civilisations and great cultural movements (e.g. the Renaissance) ;
- a present-day crossroads between cultures, the source of its creativity ;
- a unique geographical position at the interface between Europe, Africa and the Middle East.