Launch of the Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly
21 January 2010, Barcelona, Spain
On 21 January 2010, over seventy local and regional representatives from thirty countries around the three shores of the Mediterranean met in Barcelona for the inaugural meeting of the Euro-Mediterranean Assembly of Local and Regional Authorities (ARLEM).
ARLEM is a joint project of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), regional and local authorities around the three shores of the Mediterranean, and European and international associations representing regional and local authorities working on the ground. It will facilitate the establishment of contacts, good practice sharing between cities and regions and the promotion of inter-municipal and inter-regional cooperation.
Jordi Hereu, Mayor of Barcelona, officially opened the meeting, praising the launching of this new place for dialogue: ’ARLEM will play a key part in the development of the UfM; cities and regions are actively participating in building the future of the Mediterranean’.
The UfM was launched in July 2008 by the Heads of State and governments of the European Union and the Barcelona Process partner countries. In June 2008, over 500 representatives of Mediterranean cities and regions had called for the recognition of local and regional authorities as full actors in this Union, on the occasion of the Forum of Mediterranean Local Authorities.
Angel Lossada Torres-Quevedo, Spanish Secretary of State for International Relations, underlined: ’The consolidation of the UfM requires the participation of all actors: states, regions, cities and citizens’.
"We therefore offer our commitment at grassroots level, geared to implementing practical projects through the contributions of the regional and local authorities that strive on a daily basis to improve quality of life for our fellow citizens", declared Luc Van den Brande , President of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), who was elected co-president of the new assembly at this meeting. "What ARLEM needs is a grassroots structure that can operate independently of the international political context."
Furthermore, there were two working groups created during the meeting focusing on: pollution, environmental protection, alternative energy and water; and on coastal and inland motorways, local sustainable development, intercultural issues, and decentralization and regionalization.