Local and regional leaders from across the Mediterranean and the European Union have urged national governments and the international community to work more closely with mayors and governors to help stabilise North Africa and the Middle East. The conflict in Libya and the challenges of migration and climate change were of particular concerns for the mayors, governors and regional representatives at the Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly (ARLEM), which met in Malta on 23 February.

At their main meeting of the year, members of ARLEM, drawn from the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) and from non-EU states in the Mediterranean region, pointed to recent cooperation with Libyan cities as evidence that, even in difficult circumstances, cities can forge partnerships that contribute to stabilisation. In a resolution on Syria, they said they were “ready to support the Syrian people in their efforts to put an end to civil war and fight extremism and radicalisation”, noting that “this help starts in neighbouring cities welcoming refugees and dealing with the humanitarian emergency”.

The co-chairman of ARLEM, Markku Markkula, President of the CoR, said: “We cannot truly have a secure and prosperous Europe if we have an unstable neighbourhood. The Nicosia Initiative, through which European and Mediterranean partners share their know-how and practical support with Libyan authorities, is just one example of how local and regional authorities can have a real added-value, through tools such as city diplomacy and decentralised cooperation. It is only by working together on the ground that the EU will be able to find sustainable responses to the migration crisis, human trafficking, existing wars and the threat of terrorism.”

Syrian local authorities were not represented at the ARLEM meeting, but a delegation from Libya – led by Abdelrauf Beitelmal, mayor of Tripoli, and Mustafa al-Baroni, mayor of Zintan, and including representatives from Benghazi, Sebha, Sirte, and Tobruk – spoke at the ARLEM plenary session and also at conference focused on migration on 22 February.

Migration from Libya was a central topic at the conference on migration and at the plenary session. At the meeting, ARLEM adopted recommendations on energy and climate policy and on cross-border cooperation in the Mediterranean.

Among other decisions taken in Malta, ARLEM agreed to send members to Tunisia to monitor local elections this year, as part of a mission organised by the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.

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