The Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly (ARLEM)

Met dank overgenomen van Comité van de Regio's (CvdR) i, gepubliceerd op maandag 10 november 2014.

​ Representatives of local and regional authorities from the Mediterranean partner countries as well members of the Committee of the Regions met in Egypt on 10 November 2014 to discuss the work programme of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and the implementation of the European Neighbourhood Policy at the local and regional level.

The meeting was chaired by ARLEM co-Presidents Michel Lebrun, President of the Committee of the Regions, and Youssef Ali Abdel-Rahman, Governor of Giza (Egypt), in the presence of the Minister of Local Development, Adel Labib, the Minister of Urban Development, Laila Iskandar, and a representative of the EU Delegation to Egypt.

Hosted by the Governor of Luxor, Tarek Saad el-Deen, the meeting provided the opportunity to review the practical implications of the process of decentralisation in the region, which ARLEM recently traced in its map of the process of decentralisation and regionalisation in the Mediterranean region.

ARLEM members also discussed the territorial dimension of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and developments in the programming of the European Neighbourhood Policy, with a special focus on the implications for local and regional authorities.

In preparation of the ARLEM plenary session, which will be held in Antalya, Turkey, on 14-15 December 2014, participants debated three reports presented by co-chairs of ARLEM Commissions: the draft report on "waste management at local and regional level in the Mediterranean region" (presented by Hani Abdelmasih al-Hayek, co-chair of the SUDEV commission), the draft report on "the role of local and regional authorities in managing migration in the Mediterranean" (presented by Lütfü Savas, co-chair of the ECOTER commission) and the report on a cohesion policy for the Mediterranean (presented by Peter Bossman, co-chair of the ECOTER commission).

Finally, participants discussed the priorities for the next ARLEM mandate 2015-2017, which will be strategically placed within the work programme of the UfM.