EURO-MEDITERRANEAN PARTNERSHIP
BARCELONA+10
Environmental High Level Meeting
De-Pollution Initiative
Barcelona – 19 December 2005
Euro-Mediterranean Cities’ Declaration
The celebration of the Tenth Anniversary of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership offers an
extraordinary opportunity to reaffirm the need to reinforce relations between Mediterranean cities and local authorities. In this context, local authorities around the Mediterranean welcome the launch by the European Commission of the new initiative to “De-pollute the Mediterranean by 2020” and declare the following:.
1. Cities and local authorities, as the levels of government closest to the citizens, play and will continue to play a crucial role in ensuring a high quality of life for their citizens. They promote and work towards economic, social and territorial cohesion, within a framework of sustainable urban development. Therefore, in line with the new Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, and in order to achieve better governance in Mediterranean policies, it is essential that cities and local authorities from both shores are involved in the policy-making processes of the European Union and National Governments.
2. Creating a sustainable and liveable urban environment is a crucial factor in the provision of a good quality of life for citizens. In keeping with the Millennium Development Goals, this also means that citizens should have guaranteed equal access to safe water and sanitation. The principle of sustainable urban development is key to the successful achievement of the objectives of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. The “De-pollute the Mediterranean by 2020” initiative must therefore be seen as an effective tool for sustainable urban development and must lead to concrete action at all levels.
3. Within EU countries, managing the urban environment is essentially a municipal responsibility Although public decentralized co-operation in the Mediterranean must take into account the asymmetry of institutional frameworks in place in the North and in the South of the Mediterranean, this in itself does not prevent local actors on both sides from setting their own agenda as regards Euro-Mediterranean institutional relations.
4. Within partner countries, national governments are responsible for legislation in sectors related to the urban environment and its management, such as municipal solid waste and wastewater.
Decentralisation processes in these countries should be encouraged, in order to provide local authorities with the powers and capacity they need to efficiently manage the urban environment..
5. In this respect, public decentralised co-operation between Euro-Mediterranean cities is an effective tool to support sustainable urban development and should be promoted and strengthened. Networks of co-operation are essential for the development of such co-operation and for building partnership.
Cities and local authorities around the Mediterranean area recommend the following:
· Urban environment strategies, such as the initiative to “De-pollute the Mediterranean by 2020” should be considered as one of the main priorities of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership.
· Environmental protection should be integrated across all policy areas of the Barcelona Process.
· Cities and local authorities are already engaged on a daily basis in the improvement of the quality of life of their citizens. Mediterranean cities welcome new tools from the EU to further improve the quality of the urban environment. The initiative to “De-pollute the Mediterranean by 2020” should concentrate on the following priority policy areas:
- municipal waste management (taking into account also reduction at source, sustainable consumption and dematerialisation).
- wastewater treatment
- air pollution
- cleaner production (“start of the pipe” pollution)
- industrial emissions
- tourism and the environment
- protection of the coastline and biodiversity
· The EU and all the States of the Mediterranean area must support the role of cities and local authorities in relation to urban development, especially within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). The ENP should complement and not modify the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership legacy.
· Mechanisms must be established to allow the participation of cities and local authorities in the EU and Member States of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnerships in decision-making processes related to Mediterranean Policies.
· A Forum of local and regional authorities should be set up as an instrument for the implementation of Euro-Mediterranean strategies and actions.
· Specific instruments to support local democracy and governance should be created in order to help generate and enhance the management and planning skills of local elected authorities, whilst promoting a common culture of public service.
· The initiative to “De-pollute the Mediterranean by 2020” should promote the polluter-pays-principle as an instrument to finance urban environment initiatives. A stable and long term financing of environmental projects (waste and water management require important and long term financing) is essential to their success.
· EU member states should ensure the enforcement of EU legislation on waste and water management, air quality, industrial emissions and biodiversity. The Commission should identify the obstacles preventing effective implementation of legislation in some Mediterranean member states and help local authorities to meet the requirements of EU directives.
· The EU should consider an EU framework directive on the protection of the coastline, taking into consideration the “protocol for the Integrated Management of Mediterranean Coastal Zones”, elaborated by the Mediterranean Action Plan of UNEP.
· An Observatory that will compile, systematize, visualize and spread the experiences of public decentralized co-operation among Euro-Mediterranean cities should be urgently created.
· The new, recently launched, web-tool EUKN[1] should be supported to develop a specific Mediterranean component and encourage Mediterranean cities to participate and use it.
[1] European Urban Knowledge Network www.eukn.org