Yesterday, the Generalitat hosted a summit in Barcelona to promote a Mediterranean macro-region. Representatives of twelve governments from six different states (Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Morocco and Albania) went to the meeting, as well as international bodies, entities and representatives of European institutions. The initiative is undertaken to join forces to defend common interests. One of these, the fight against climate change, was touched upon yesterday, even though Pere Aragonès, in his inaugural speech, launched an allegation in favor of peace in Gaza.
The head of government emphasized that one of the implicit axes of the new macro-region is “to ask for peace throughout the world, also on the borders of the Mediterranean coast”. “A peace that we want to return soon, that we demand, because the Mediterranean must be a framework moved by peace and human rights”, said Aragonès in implicit reference to the invasion of Gaza by Israel.
In any case, the initiative is led by Catalonia, with the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte Blava, and it is the European Commission that must validate it. It aims to be a pressure group against Brussels and to constitute “a European instrument of territorial cooperation” to face common challenges. This was insisted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Meritxell Serret, in front of the press after the meeting.
In addition to the Government, the summit was attended by representatives of the governments of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Corsica and Occitanie (France), Calabria and Emilia-Romagna (Italy), Eastern Greece and Crete (Greece), Shkodër and Tirana (Albania), L’Oriental and Tangier-Tetouan-Alhucemas (Morocco), and members of the parliament of Lebanon, the Andalusian Council and the councils of Montpellier, Tangier and Barcelona.
The president pointed out that the Mediterranean is one of the areas of 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, during the last months, many of the territories gathered yesterday at the Palau de la Generalitat ” they have suffered forest fires, very intense heat waves or violent floods”.
