In association with all the territorial organizations that support it (city of Marseille, regional council of the département of Bouches-du-Rhône, region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) and with the participation of the public institution Euroméditerranée and of the autonomous port of Marseille a major cultural project will be erected at the entrance of the port of Marseille. The project is supported by the European Community.

Owing to the richness of its patrimony, the greatest French museum for social issues was obliged to widen its horizon and reinvent itself as the Musée des Civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée. A new scientific and cultural project was born, elaborated by the museum team and enriched with the works produced by a scientific committee composed of national and international specialists.

In addition to its function of patrimonialization and preservation of folk memory the new institution with its essentially important research laboratory aims at playing a real social role.
That is the reason why the future museum will not be centered on its collections but on the public and its questionings, patrimony being considered as a raw material that can be used as a testimony, to introduce counter-arguments, to arouse from the public's own experience reminiscences, reflexions, or simply new questionings. The museum will be a sort of forum, a space for discussions where displays of reference works and temporary exhibitions will be structured around fundamental social issues.

The new museum will be located in the restored Fort Saint-Jean and in a new adjoining building of symbolic architecture erected on pier J4-space Saint-Jean at the entrance of the port of Marseille. The Direction des Musées de France is the contracting authority assisted by the Etablissement public de Maîtrise d'Ouvrage des Travaux culturels.
The international competition opened in june 2002 will reveal to the public on june 2003 the architectural project selected.