ARLEM puts local and regional authorities at the heart of the Mediterranean Pact

The 17th plenary session of the Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly (ARLEM) met in Tirana, Albania, on 26th and 27th October. The plenary broadly adopted the opinion “Delivering the Pact for the Mediterranean with local and regional authorities”, whose rapporteur was EA President Marie-Antoinette Maupertuis.

EA Group members Sergio Pérez García and Emil Drăghici took part in the plenary. President Maupertuis, kept in Paris by last-minute commitments, presented the opinion remotely, calling for local and regional authorities to be formally integrated into the governance, implementation and monitoring of the Pact. It proposes a Steering Group involving ARLEM participation in the coordination meetings of the Joint Group at Senior Officials’ Level (SOM).

It also asks that the territorial projects annexed to the opinion feed into the Pact’s future Action Plans. Other proposals include accounting for the specific needs of islands and coastal areas, and simpler access to EU funding, including through Interreg NEXT MED. The priorities are climate resilience and water management, the energy transition, youth, and civil protection.

President Maupertuis said: “Local and regional authorities cannot be mere executors of policies designed elsewhere. They must be full partners, from policy design to implementation and evaluation. There will be no truly effective Pact for the Mediterranean without them.”

She welcomed the openness shown by Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Šuica and DG MENA, and said ARLEM’s role in the Pact’s governance is now recognised. She added that this recognition “must not remain symbolic” and that the Pact’s success “will be measured by the concrete changes that occur in our cities, our regions, and our islands.” The plenary also heard presentations of concrete projects on gender equality, youth, climate transition, civil protection and capacity building.