On 3-4 April, the City of Marseille and the Provence-Alps-Côte d'Azur Region welcomed around 400 elected officials and practitioners from 24 Mediterranean countries, on the occasion of the 3rd Forum of Local and Regional Authorities of the Mediterranean. After two days of exchange, the gathering formalized the creation of the Political Council of the Mediterranean Committee and the request for a Mediterranean Spring in favour of regional development at political, economic and cultural levels in order to answer the aspirations of young people.
The key messages of the Final Declaration, presented by Mohamed Boudra, Chair of the newly elected Political Council of the UCLG Mediterranean Committee, are directed at Heads of States and Governments, as well as international donors, Parliamentarians and civil society.
During these two days, local and regional elected officials also expressed the political, social and economic difficulties encountered in the region and drew particular attention to the difficulties faced by young people during agathering between local elected officials and young people.
Local and regional elected officials of the Mediterranean reaffirmed their determination to contributing to creating a space of peace, solidarity and concrete projects for their citizens. The participants called for “the revision of the Millennium Development Goals and the definition of Sustainable Development Goals to be the occasion to set up a specific focus for the Mediterranean, with adequate resources for the social, economic and environmental challenges ahead.” In this perspective, participants called for greater convergence of the policies implemented by the main donors in the Mediterranean area.
“An initiative like the Political Council of the UCLG Mediterranean Committee is crucial to sustaining a dialogue that is open and continuous between cities and regions of the Mediterranean area”, claimed Mohamed Boudra. According to Michel Vauzelle, “this Forum must re-launch people-centred projects in the Mediterranean, as was expressed by local and regional elected officials through their conviction and commitment during these two days”. “By providing the UCLG Mediterranean Committee with a Political Council, we, local and regional elected officials, will define together our will to meet the challenges that our countries, territories and cities are faced with and we will jointly establish the multi-level democracy that our citizens aspire to”, added Jean-Claude Gaudin.
Finally, all participants highlighted their major concern about the situation in Syria and the human repercussions. They firmly called upon the international community to put an end to the Syrian tragedy which is starting to provoke instability in some countries of the region hosting large numbers of Syrian refugees.
Click on the links below to access the following documents:
- Political declaration
More information: http://www.commed-