A word from the President

A shared future for the Mediterranean region 

The dramatic events that have shaken the Mediterranean region since the COVID crisis have outlined multiple threats. For those reasons, Euro-Mediterranean decentralised cooperation partners must, more than ever, increase their efforts and inventiveness, and engage in strengthening solidarity between the northern and southern Mediterranean banks.

Major environmental, security, climatic, migration, energy and economic risks are all threats that confront the Mediterranean peoples with the realities of a region in crisis, impacted by the worsening issues of demography, pollution, increased poverty and radicalisation. Such factors breed resentment, frustration and tension within a fragile human ecosystem.

These threats and their far-reaching consequences have become vital issues, requiring regional cooperation stakeholders to urgently take action and intensify their endeavours to support sustainable transitions and maintain a balance within the Euro-Mediterranean area.

True, the Mediterranean region is a land of resilience, challenged a thousand times over the course of history, but always eager to reinvent itself. By transcending their differences for the collective good sake, the Mediterranean countries have, in the past, been able to foster principles of universality and transform this inland sea into a vibrant area of economic and cultural communication and exchange.

 This is why the Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis, through the EUROMED Cities Network, is committed to working towards a peaceful and prosperous Mediterranean. Since 2010, as the network was set up in Nice, EUROMED, in line with the principles enshrined in the Barcelona Process, has been working with Euro-Mediterranean communities and partners on a wide range of projects aimed at overcoming the North-South dichotomy, contributing its expertise and helping to build a viable Mediterranean area for all its peoples.

Euro-Mediterranean cooperation as conducted by the Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis is a key element in a proactive and visionary approach to territorial diplomacy, focusing on regional solidarity and sustainable development and making cities the driving forces behind change.

Chosen to host the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) in 2025, Nice Côte d’Azur is reasserting its role as a model territory in terms of Euro-regional sustainable development, rooted in a long-term vision and unwavering commitment to ecological exemplarity, at the core of its Euro-Mediterranean cooperation strategy.

The Réseau des Villes EUROMED website is also your website. You are welcome to consult our news, share your projects, ideas and suggestions, as a way to strengthen our ties, conceive solutions for the future and preserve, together, our common heritage, Mare Nostrum.    

The Euromed Cities Network