"The International Financial Crisis of 2008 was a perfect storm where millions lost their jobs, lost their homes and lost their savings - it was a catastrophic international crisis. There are many dark clouds ahead today which may lead to economic downturns in some parts of the globe, but it would be farfetched to expect that they will all come together and form another perfect storm in the years ahead."

Minister for Finance Edward Scicluna was one of the leading panel speakers during a plenary session titled '10 Years After the International Financial Crisis: Is the Next One Looming?', as part of the annual Atlantic Dialogues held in Marrakech between the 13th to 15th of December.

During the panel discussion, Minister Scicluna discussed the EU's take on the lessons learnt from the international financial crisis, as well as topics currently being deliberated to ensure another crisis of that magnitude is not repeated. Minister Scicluna stated that looking to the future, if we were to combine all the threads of all the pressures around the world, they do not bode well for the future. However, we would not go as far as to say that the next international financial crisis is looming.

This was the seventh edition of the Atlantic Dialogues, a high-level conference that has become a tradition since its launch in 2012 by its founding partners the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the OCP Policy Centre in Morocco.

This annual conference convenes influential public and private sector leaders from around the Atlantic basin for open, informal discussion on cross-regional issues. The event encourages an interactive exchange of views between young professionals and today's leaders.

This year's theme was that of 'Overcoming the Choke Points'. Other key speakers included Madeline Albright, former US Secretary of State, Zeinab Badawi, presenter of BBC Hard Talk programme, Uri Dadush, past President of the Economic Intelligence Unit, and Amre Moussa, past Secretary General of the League of Arab States.