Brussels, 27/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - ARLEM, the Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly, which was constituted in Barcelona on 21 January 2010, will hold its first annual session in Agadir, Morocco, on 29 January. Morocco is taking on its co-presidency alongside the European Committee of the Regions (CoR). ARLEM has acquired permanent observer status within the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), in which it intends to develop a “local dimension”. Its objective is to “involve the local and regional authorities in its future development” and to “show that despite major political and institutional obstacles, the local and regional authorities are working together”. The ambition is to “set in place projects helping to make Euro-Mediterranean relations concrete and tangible for the citizens”, says the CoR. In October last year, ARLEM adopted a political declaration stressing its priorities to continue the process of the Union for the Mediterranean and in Agadir, will examine draft reports on urban development in the Mediterranean region, local water management in the Mediterranean and a draft annual report on the local dimensions of the Union for the Mediterranean. (F.B./transl.fl)