Homepage
Sitemap
Larger
Smaller
Login
Registration
Help
Terms of use
CoR backs the establishment of a regional and local dimension to the "Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean
25.06.2008, 18:38
On 24 June, in Marseilles, the president of the Committee of the Regions, Luc Van den Brande, announced the initiative of the representative assembly of the local and regional authorities of the European Union to join their counterparts from the southern and eastern Mediterranean coasts in what he described as a "permanent body" that he believed would provide"an ideal institutional framework for local and regional representatives of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership and enable them to establish direct dialogue with the European institutions". The assembly's first meeting would be held in Brussels as from 2009, at the Committee of the Regions.
Luc Van den Brande's announcement came the day after a forum held in Marseilles, which brought together local and regional representatives from the three Mediterranean coastal regions and which highlighted the need to create a formal representation system for local and regional authorities in the Euro-Mediterranean partnership. At the opening of the forum, Michel Vauzelle, President of Provence-Alpes-Côtes d'Azur, the host region, stated that: "The local and regional authorities need a permanent platform within the official structures of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership and should be working with the institutions of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership, alongside the Committee of the Regions, in a balanced north-south representation of the Mediterranean."
This initiative is wholly in line with the relaunch of the Barcelona process, to which the French EU presidency intends to add a special dimension via its Union for the Mediterranean project. The President of the French Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, will meet his colleagues from the EU and other Mediterranean coastal regions on 13 July 2008 in Paris. On the occasion of the June forum, Mr Sarkozy had addressed a letter to the 500 local and regional authorities from the three Mediterranean coastal regions meeting in Marseilles, stating that: "Without you, the Union for the Mediterranean project will not engage communities. With your support, the seemingly impossible becomes possible".
Furthermore, at the 18-19 June plenary session of the Committee of the Regions, Hubert Falco, French State Secretary for Town and Country Planning, announced, on behalf of the future EU presidency, that the Committee of the Regions would be consulted by the Council on methods for the possible implementation of a "local and regional dimension" to the Union for the Mediterranean project.
"If we want to get concrete results" emphasised the president of the Committee of the Regions "the Barcelona process will have to go beyond intergovernmental relations and also promote the regional and local cooperation that local and regional authorities are successfully developing."
The forum proposed by the Committee of the Regions would ensure a structure for highlighting and monitoring the on-the-ground situation concerning relations between the EU and its partners in the southern and eastern regions of the Mediterranean, whilst also enabling local and regional stakeholders to jointly raise their shared concerns.
"Local and regional authorities" explained Luc Van den Brande "are at the frontline of issues raised at the intergovernmental level so they routinely provide practical solutions in the areas of education, water and waste management, transport and natural disasters, not to mention the environment or the promotion of regional democracy".
The local and regional authorities offer an ideal framework for Euro-Mediterranean policy. Thus, decentralised cooperation ensures a more effective grassroots approach and helps to earn the support of the communities concerned. Local and regional cooperation can also contribute to democracy and make a real impact on intercultural dialogue and experience sharing.
Source: www.cor.eu