The local and regional authorities on all three shores of the Mediterranean basin represented in ARLEM are strongly in favour of a water strategy for the Mediterranean

Boosting regional cooperation, consolidating decentralisation and strengthening institutional capacity at local level are essential to ensure the success of the current period of transition facing the Southern Mediterranean. These priorities will guide the work of the Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly (ARLEM) to help facilitate the reform processes in the region. This was the commitment made by local and regional politicians, supported by the Union for the Mediterranean, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Commission, who gathered on 18 February in Brussels for the ARLEM's 4th plenary session.

The topics of water and desertification were addressed in reports by ARLEM's SUDEV commission, which mapped out a common political path and strategy for the region, taking into account the role of LRAs in identifying and implementing measures to deal with desertification. The problems related to water demand and desertification and water shortage in semiarid areas of the Mediterranean were also tackled, with particular emphasis on the Murcia Declaration, which was the result of a meeting held in November 2011 at the Campus Mare Nostrum. ARLEM is regularly monitoring the implementation of its report on local water management, adopted in 2011.

During the Global Water Solidarity Forum that took place on 9-10 October 2012 in Oujda, Morocco, several actors, including the United Nations Development Programme, the UfM, ARLEM and the Mediterranean Institute for Water, among others, discussed which decentralised solidarity mechanisms and regional cooperation are needed to make the Right to Water and Sanitation a reality in the Mediterranean.

In the final conclusions, the forum's participants state that the local and regional authorities on all three shores of the Mediterranean basin represented in ARLEM are strongly in favour of a water strategy for the Mediterranean, involving all levels of governance (global, national, regional and local) and undertake to introduce innovative measures and Decentralised Solidarity Mechanisms to ensure universal access to drinking water and sanitation in the Mediterranean and to develop and reproduce them on a larger scale.

ARLEM has commissioned a study on "EU funding for local and regional authorities from the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries – an information guide". The purpose of this study is to develop a handbook to identify how Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries can access EU funds and programmes, considering the specificities of each country and providing a complete overview of the possibilities. ARLEM's aim with this study is to produce a practical guide for the use of LRAs in Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries.

During the Bari plenary session (30 January 2012), a handbook on development cooperation projects for the water sector in the Mediterranean was distributed. The aim of this document is to address in a pragmatic way the information needs of LRAs when looking for new sources of funding and opportunities available at the EU level in the field of water. It is a short Q&A guide presenting in simple language and in a concise way how to find information on funding opportunities in the water sector in the Mediterranean for LRAs.

The ARLEM secretariat has launched a newsletter to inform members and friends of ARLEM about its activities and the activities conducted within the framework of Euro-Mediterranean policies and programmes. Members are invited to share information about their activities and projects so that a genuine network of transregional cooperation can be formed within ARLEM. Two newsletters have already been published with information on ARLEM activities, the European Commission's calls for proposals available to LRAs and specific projects.

ARLEM's interaction with the various European institutions offer a promising path for gradually encouraging the involvement of LRAs in the UfM's operational strategy and funding. Under the UfM's Annual Work programmes for 2012 and 2013, the priority is to deliver concrete results by developing flagship projects within its guidelines. In order to fulfil its mandate, the UfM has developed a process of screening and analysing the projects, and it is also working towards the development of a strategy and an operational plan to attract funding. The fundraising strategy consists in establishing a network of financiers and donors who could provide funding for UfM labelled projects, as well as promoting the creation of new financing schemes applicable to UfM projects. The UfM is developing projects in five different fields of great importance for the region: business development and funding coordination; transport and urban development; energy, environment and water; higher education and research; and social and civil affairs.

Finally, ARLEM should deploy its capacity to act and propose measures with a view to territorialising the sectoral priorities of the UfM. In addition, when it comes to the selection and implementation of practical UfM projects, we will ensure that regional and local players are involved, especially when the projects in question have clear territorial implications.

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Report on local water management in the Mediterranean (Ramón Luis Valcárcel, (Murcia/ES) (CdR 61/2011 fin).

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Related Information

Links

• Minutes 3rd Plenary Session (Bari)