Agadir, 31/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - Representatives of the Euro-Mediterranean countries met in Agadir, Morocco on 29 January in the Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly (ARLEM), which was formed in Barcelona a year ago and which was holding its first annual meeting under the joint chairmanship of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) and, for the countries of the southern bank, Morocco. The backdrop to the meeting was one of uncertainty for the operation of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) which had culminated on the UfM Secretary General's renunciation and official resignation (see EUROPE 10304). Despite the institutional difficulties and the international tensions, local representatives reaffirmed their “commitment to continue dialogue and cooperation between the three shores of the Mediterranean”, the European, the southern and the eastern shores. They repeated their desire to become the “territorial dimension” of the Euro-Mediterranean dialogue in its entirety. They welcomed their having, six months ago, been granted the status of permanent observer within all UfM bodies. UfM Secretary General with responsibility for water, Palestinian Rafiq Hussein also repeated the pledge to maintain close operational contact with ARLEM - though exactly how this would work was put into doubt during the course of debates, in light of the belief that local authorities could cooperate sufficiently well to be able to act autonomously, sheltered from the institutional and political tremors which affect the UfM.
The Secretariat General of the Barcelona-based organisation said at Agadir that it wanted to gather proposals to be submitted to the various governing bodies of the UfM. This announcement was well received by the ARLEM members, whose suggestions for technical studies the university research associations said they were awaiting. The concern remains where appropriate funding will be found, when, according to one of the rapporteurs, only a “very small proportion of the budgetary resources” of the European neighbourhood policy (ENP) had contributed anything to the Euro-Mediterranean cities and regions.
The policy's main instrument for Euro-Mediterranean areas and regions will be “devolution” and Jacques Blanc (from Languedoc-Roussillon), a former CoR president added that the democratic development demands of the Mediterranean partner countries should be first and foremost a matter for local authorities. The need for transparency was underlined by a number of speakers. “I think that devolution can aid the development of all areas democratically by involving people in the running of their own affairs”, said CoR President and ARLEM Co-President Mercedes Bresso. She went on: “Is it any coincidence that protest movements (currently in Egypt, after Tunisia) often start in cities or regions a long way from a country's political and economic centre, the starting point being a feeling of being 'kept at a distance'?” She stated that “the peoples of the Euro-Mediterranean region have a right to expect their representatives to work to make social and territorial cohesion a reality in the region”.
The meeting afforded a wide-ranging debate on three reports: one on the “territorial dimension”, a second on “local management of water” and the third on “urban development”, with a representative of the French Joint Presidency of the UfM, Gilles Pennequin, stating the desire to give greater prominence to this issue, in the hope that a ministerial meeting will be convened to discuss it. Previous scheduled meetings were cancelled because of the “post-Gaza” situation.
The next ARLEM meeting, it was decided, will be held in Bari, in the south of Italy, and four issues were agreed for reports: climate change (in particular desertification), renewable energy, the role of small and medium-sized businesses in regional policies, and cultural heritage. (F.B./transl.rt)