ARLEM bureau moves to Morocco to discuss priorities for Euro-Med regional body

For the first time since its creation, members of the ARLEM Bureau – the decision-making body of the Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly – will move to the southern shores of the Mediterranean, meeting in the Moroccan city of Tangiers on 9 October.

Invited by the ARLEM co-president, Mohammed Boudra, the Bureau will meet to prepare the autumn agenda, including the planned summit of heads of state and government of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM).

Earlier this year, the bureau had sent a formal request to UfM Secretary-General Ahmad Masa'deh for ARLEM to be granted observer status in the UfM. The question will be examined again by the bureau ahead of the 20-21 November UfM summit, together with a report commissioned on the progress of the territorial dimension within the UfM.

The bureau will also look ahead to meetings of ARLEM’s Commission for Economic, Social and Territorial Affairs (ECOTER) and its Commission for Sustainable Development (SUDEV), ahead of the coming plenary session of its assembly to be held in Agadir on 29 January 2011.

In the autumn, ECOTER and SUDEV are expected to finalise their work on urban development and local management of water.

ARLEM is a consultative assembly, which aims at bringing a regional and local dimension to the Euro-Mediterranean partnership. It gathers 84 members from the EU and its 16 Mediterranean partners who are representatives of regions and local bodies holding a regional or local authority mandate. The inaugural ARLEM meeting took place on 21 January 2010 in Barcelona.

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The Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly (ARLEM) is a consultative assembly which aims at bringing a regional and local dimension to the Euro-Mediterranean partnership. It gathers 84 membersfrom the EU and its 16 Mediterranean partners who are representatives of regions and local bodies holding a regional or local authority mandate.

The inaugural ARLEM meeting took place on 21 January 2010 at the Pedralbes Palace in Barcelona, Spain.

The aim of ARLEM is :

• to give the Union for the Mediterranean a territorial dimension
• to involve local and regional authorities in its further development
• to demonstrate cooperation between local and regional authorities despite major political or institutional barriers
• to set up projects that contribute to make Euro-Mediterranean relations concrete and tangible for the citizens.