The Honorary President of the EMA and former President of Germany, H.E. Christian Wulff, opened this year’s New Year Reception with an inspiring speech about past, present, and future events connecting the Mediterranean and Middle East region with Germany. He praised especially the German-Arab mentoring program Ouissal, whose work we presented to the audience with a short video. With a view back on a challenging year and ahead on a year full of new projects and activities, we invited all attendees for various breakout networking chats to conclude the Reception.