Brussels, 14/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - A meeting on urban development in the Euro-Mediterranean area will be held in Strasbourg on 9-10 November, at an initiative by the French co-presidency of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM). The subject is considered an important one, especially in the context of the “revolutions” that have recently taken place in the countries south of the Mediterranean Sea. A preparatory meeting was held in Rabat on 12-13 September with a view to identifying common measures to be put to ministerial approval, in Strasbourg.
The invitation to attend extended to the southern rim countries shows that the socio-economic and political changes underway in the Mediterranean region, and especially the countries to the south and east of the Mediterranean, provide a “unique historic opportunity” to tackle a problem that specialists consider one of the major challenges facing that region. Specialists in fact met to discuss the matter in Barcelona on 14-15 March this year at the initiative of the municipality and metropolitan area of Barcelona, the Medcités organisation and the Centre de Marseille pour l'Intégration en Méditerranée (CMI), in the presence of mayors and heads of local authorities from throughout the Mediterranean region. At that meeting it was said that “economic growth and demographic pressure in the Mediterranean basin is concentrated in its urban environments”. It is therefore vital to foresee such developments and to promote the “constitution of an economically and socially viable city system”, as economic trends strengthen production factors that weigh on the balance of the regions and put pressure on the urban fabric.
According to the same specialists, “better quality of life for urban populations also makes a decisive contribution to social stability and economic efficiency”. The EU is invited to create a far-reaching programme to assist the towns, and the partner states are urged to strengthen their relocation policies and to increase power at local and municipal level, and to strengthen the financial and human capacities of those regions. The problem is a universal one, according to a UNFPA report which fuelled the debates between specialists, stating that: “In 2008, for the first time in history, more than half of the world's population will be living in towns and cities. By 2030 this number will swell to almost 5 billion”. Around the Mediterranean basin, the urban challenge is particularly pressing, as Mediterranean towns are undergoing major urban growth given the some 240 million people, i.e. 75% of the population, that they will have to take in by 2020. (FB/transl.jl)