The annual conference where governments, business, civil society, media and academia meet to draft a "positive agenda" for the Mediterranean: the 12th edition runs 19 to 21 November 2026 at the Royal Palace in Naples.
MED Mediterranean Dialogues (MED Dialogues, formerly known as Rome MED) is an annual foreign-policy conference on the Mediterranean and the wider Middle East, launched in 2015. The organiser, which describes it as the leading conference on the Mediterranean, says it aims to rethink traditional approaches to the area and draft a "positive agenda" that tackles security and socio-economic challenges through common visions. The 12th edition takes place from 19 to 21 November 2026 at the Royal Palace (Palazzo Reale) in Naples. It is promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and ISPI (Italian Institute for International Political Studies), and the debates are built on four pillars: Shared Security, Shared Prosperity, Human Dimension, and Civil Society and Culture.
19 to 21 November 2026. Royal Palace (Palazzo Reale), Naples, Italy. The organiser's site announces the 12th edition at this venue. A day-by-day programme for 2026 was not published as of 20 October 2026, so which sessions fall on which of the three days is not known.
ISPI (Italian Institute for International Political Studies) and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. The organiser's site calls the conference "promoted by" the Ministry and ISPI; for the 2025 edition the Ministry's own notices describe it as organised by the Ministry in collaboration with ISPI. ISPI describes itself as an independent, non-partisan, nonprofit think tank, founded in Milan in 1934. The conference secretariat can be reached at med.secretariat@ispionline.it.
Not publicly disclosed. No attendance figure for 2026 is published. The organiser says past editions brought together more than 2,000 international leaders (organiser figure, cumulative across editions, not per edition): heads of state, ministers, dignitaries, representatives of international organisations and business leaders, mostly from the wider Mediterranean but also Europe, Asia and the US. The 2026 announcement names leaders from governments, business, civil society, media and academia. In-person places are limited: the registration form states that a request does not guarantee admission and is subject to confirmation by the MED Secretariat.
No 2026 speaker list was published on the official site as of 20 October 2026. Names that appear in the database research record for past editions, not for 2026, are Sergio Mattarella (unverifiable information), Jens Stoltenberg (unverifiable information) and John Kerry (unverifiable information). The organiser's own about page says past editions hosted the King of Jordan, the Iraqi and Lebanese Presidents, foreign ministers from Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the US Secretary of State and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
The 12th edition is the second to be held in Naples: the 11th edition took place from 15 to 17 October 2025 at the same Royal Palace, according to the Italian Foreign Ministry's press notices, after earlier editions that carried the name Rome MED. The official 2026 home page lists four pillars, where older material lists five. A podcast and a "MED This Week" analysis series run on the same site. No 2026 programme change has been published beyond the dates and venue.
No 2026 programme document was linked on the official site as of 20 October 2026; the site links programme PDFs for the 2025 and 2024 editions only. The organiser describes the four pillars as follows.
The organiser calls the event a conference of debates and dialogues organised by pillar. The sessions are held in person at the Royal Palace, with a separate online registration for remote viewers. Session-level formats for 2026 (plenaries, roundtables, closed meetings) are not published.
Not publicly disclosed for 2026. The organiser's site shows partner-led sessions inside earlier programmes, such as the Doha Forum Regional Initiative session on EU-GCC cooperation, and ISPI runs separate MED Special Dialogue events during the year, for example with Syria's Minister of Social and Labour Affairs on 11 June. No side event tied to the 19 to 21 November dates was found.
Not publicly disclosed. No ticket price or delegate fee is shown on the official site or on either registration form. Attendance is requested, not bought: the in-person form (titled "Request your in-person participation") asks for date of birth because the Italian police run advance security checks, and states that access is denied if details are inaccurate. The online form says a link to the MED platform is sent a few days before the event.
Not publicly disclosed. No call for speakers or proposal procedure is published; the programme is set by the organisers. Enquiries can go to med.secretariat@ispionline.it.
Not publicly disclosed. No sponsorship brochure, price list or exhibition offer was found. The official site lists a supporters page with four tiers (Official Corporate Partner, Corporate Partner, Main Sponsor, Sponsors) and a separate partners page for institutions, so support is arranged directly with the organiser. There is no exhibition floor described.
The official 2026 supporters page lists the following.
The institutional partners page for 2026 lists Atlantic Council, Center for International Policy Research (CIPR), Chatham House, Clingendael (spelled "Clingadael" on the page), Doha Forum, ECAM Council, Emirates Policy Center (EPC), Elcano Royal Institute, German Marshall Fund, IACE (Arab Institute of Business Leaders), IEMed, International Organization for Migration, Kapsarc, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, McKinsey & Company, Mediterranean Women Mediators Network, Middle East Institute, MERI, Muscat Policy Council, SALMA Dialogue, Stimson Center, Union for the Mediterranean and UNIMED.
Not publicly disclosed. No breakdown of participants by company type is published. The 2026 supporters point to energy, finance and industry groups (ENI, SNAM, ENEL, Fincantieri, Intesa Sanpaolo), and the partner list is mostly think tanks and policy institutes.
Not documented for 2026. No press page was found on the official site as of 20 October 2026. For the 2025 edition, the Italian Foreign Ministry ran accreditation through its portal and by email (accreditamentostampa@esteri.it), with a deadline the day before the conference and extra documents for foreign journalists; ISPI's press office was a second contact. Expect a similar procedure in 2026 but confirm it with the Ministry or ISPI.
None found in the sourced material beyond organiser and government material. The coverage located for this fiche is the Italian Foreign Ministry's press notices and ISPI's own highlights and analyses for the 2025 edition. No independent press coverage of the 2026 edition exists yet.
Nothing to classify for 2026. The available material is organiser or ministry material (ISPI highlights, Ministry notices), which describes the conference rather than assessing it. No media partner list was found, so no outlet carries a "(media partner)" label here.
Buyers looking for product demonstrations or an exhibition floor: none is described and the supporters are sponsors, not exhibitors. Researchers who want to present a paper: no call for speakers is published. Anyone who needs an admission guarantee: in-person places are limited and every request is subject to confirmation by the MED Secretariat.
Not documented. The organiser positions it as the leading conference on the Mediterranean and runs it each autumn, after the 11th edition in October 2025 and ahead of the 19 to 21 November 2026 dates. Its partner list includes the Doha Forum, which also runs a regional initiative session within MED. A comparison with other policy forums is not made on the official site.
Yes, in the sense that earlier editions were not held in Naples under the earlier Rome MED name: the official site links editions back to MED 2015, and its footer still links an X account named RomeMEDialogues. Held in Rome from 2015 at the Parco dei Principi hotel (unverifiable information). The 11th edition (15 to 17 October 2025) and the 12th are both at the Royal Palace in Naples. The 2020 edition was held virtually (unverifiable information), and 2023 is listed as an "Extraordinary Expert Meeting".
The official site is in English, with some pages in Italian. The database records English and Italian as working languages. Whether interpretation is provided is not stated.
Yes. The official site offers a separate online registration for 2026; registrants receive a link to the MED platform a few days before the event. The organiser also publishes highlights, session videos and past-edition recordings on its YouTube channel and its site.
Not publicly disclosed. No fee is published, so no refund or cancellation terms exist on the registration forms. A participation request can be refused, since admission is subject to confirmation by the MED Secretariat.
Not publicly disclosed. No accessibility statement was found on the official site or the registration forms. The venue, the Royal Palace of Naples, is a historic building; ask the MED Secretariat (med.secretariat@ispionline.it) about step-free access before registering.
The Royal Palace (Palazzo Reale) stands on Piazza del Plebiscito in central Naples; the Foreign Ministry's 2025 press notice gave Piazza del Plebiscito 1 as the accredited press entrance. For 2025 a restricted security perimeter surrounded the palace, and participants are checked in advance against the date of birth given at registration. Public transport routes are not described by the organiser.
Because the conference is promoted by a foreign ministry and a think tank together, and it says past editions gathered more than 2,000 international leaders in total. That mix of official standing and open debate on four named pillars is the reason to follow it, rather than any commercial offer: there is no exhibition, no published ticket and no sponsor access to the programme.
Because the only figure the organiser gives is a cumulative count of more than 2,000 leaders over all editions, with no per-edition attendance for 2026. Older descriptions, including the previous version of this fiche, said the forum was invitation-only, had five pillars and was moving to Naples for the first time. The current official pages show a registration form, four pillars and a second Naples edition. Reconfirm anything you plan to rely on with the MED Secretariat.
Official site: https://med.ispionline.it/. In-person participation request and online registration are linked from its home page. Supporters: https://med.ispionline.it/supporters/med-2026. Partners: https://med.ispionline.it/partners-2026. About: https://www.ispionline.it/en/ispi-med/about. Contact: the MED Secretariat (address given under the organiser entry). X: @MEDialogues. Hashtag: #MED2026.