This side event gathered the major institutions and stakeholders from European, Western Asian and North African countries to provide an overview of the joint efforts of strengthened cooperation, common vision and shared strategies towards achieving sustainable development. Under the light of a growing financial volatility, the new realities following the Arab Spring, and taking into consideration the emerging challenges, the event has renewed the political commitment on a realistic basis in an eco-region located at the North-South interface, facing serious demographic, economic, environmental, technological and socio-cultural problems.
The event was supported by several Mediterranean countries (Croatia, France, Greece, Lebanon, Monaco, Morocco) and institutions such as the Fondation Mohamed VI pour la protection de l'Environnement. Furthermore, the event supports the objectives of the ‘MedPartnership’ and the Mediterranean Component of the EU Water Initiative (MED EUWI), as well as those of the EU projects Horizon 2020 Capacity Building Programme (CB/MEP), Sustainable Water Integrated Management (SWIM) and the recently launched SWITCH-MED which will promote sustainable consumption and production and resource efficiency in the Mediterranean.
Enrique de Villamore, CP/RAC’s director, participated to the event jointly with Maria Luisa Silva Mejías, UNEP/MAP’s Coordinator; Rafiq Husseini, Deputy Secretary General for Environment and Water of the UfM Secretariat; Prince Albert II of Monaco and Lluís Recoder, from the Ministry of Territory and Sustainability of the Government of Catalonia, among others.