This afternoon in Barcelona, ??the Generalitat hosted a summit to promote a Mediterranean macro-region. Representatives of twelve governments from six different States (Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Morocco and Albania) met at the event, as well as international organizations, entities and representatives of European institutions. The initiative is undertaken to join forces to defend common interests. One of them, the fight against climate change, which is focused on today, although Pere Aragonès, in his inaugural speech, launched a plea in favor of peace in Gaza.
“When we proposed this meeting we did not imagine that we would have to start talking about peace [in the Mediterranean],” said the head of the Government, who highlighted that one of the implicit axes of the new macro-region that he intends to promote is “to ask for peace throughout the world, also on the borders of the Mediterranean shore.” “A peace that we want to return soon, that we demand, because the Mediterranean must be a framework driven by peace and human rights,” Aragonès added in clear reference to the invasion of Gaza by Israel.
In any case, the initiative has been led by Catalonia together with the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and aims to be a pressure group before Brussels and constitute “a European instrument of territorial cooperation that allows them to join forces, build a single voice and jointly defend” their interests to face common challenges.
The proposal does not stand alone. In May, the European Parliament asked the European Commission to support it. Furthermore, in October 2022, the European Committee of the Regions approved an opinion detailing the priorities of this Mediterranean macro-region and its future operation. The event coincides to a certain extent with the Regional Forum of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) on Monday, which is being held in Barcelona. It coincides with the trip of the president of the Generalitat to South Korea.
In his speech, Aragonès encouraged attendees to formalize a union that must serve, in his opinion, to better address shared challenges, such as demographic, technological, economic and social, “but above all the challenge of climate change”.
In this sense, the president has highlighted that the Mediterranean is one of the regions in the world most affected by global warming and pollution. Its entire area is considered “a hot spot.” “It is warming 20% ??faster than the rest of the world (…) and we are suffering the consequences,” he warned, before recalling that in recent months, many of the territories gathered today at the Palau de la Generalitat “have suffered forest fires, very intense heat waves or violent floods.”
In addition to the Government, the summit was attended by representatives of the governments of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Corsica and Occitania (France), Calabria and Emilia Romagna (Italy), Eastern Greece and Crete (Greece), Shkodër and Tirana (Albania). ), El Oriental and Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima (Morocco), and members of the parliament of Lebanon, the Junta de Andalucía and the city councils of Montpellier (France), Tangier (Morocco) and Barcelona.
