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A Euro-Mediterranean Conference on local water management
was held in Marseilles on November 26. It gathered eighteen Ministers
in charge of water, representatives from member countries of the
European Union and their counterparts from countries bordering
the Mediterranean.
The debates were chaired by Corinne LEPAGE, French
Minister for the Environment, and Mr. Bernard, Irish Secretary
of State for the Environment, whose country is in charge of presiding
the European Union. The conference was preceded on the day before
by a meeting of experts which had been opened by Jean-François
GAUDIN, Mayor of Marseilles and Minister of Land Use Planning,
Towns and Integration.
At the opening of the Conference, Corinne LEPAGE
reminded that water is a fragile resource and the basis of a Mediterranean
sustainable development. Water is a social, economic and environmental
concern in all countries. Corinne LEPAGE pleaded for the implementation
of a global water management that would associate the various
users as well as for the acknowledgment of the socio-economic
value of water.
The Ministerial Conference adopted a Euro-Mediterranean
declaration on local water management which stressed common principles
and objectives for water policies and broadened the arrangements
of the Rome Charter to a Euro-Mediterranean context. The Ministers
also decided to set up a Euro-Mediterranean Information System
on know-how in the Water Field that will organize a network of
competences.
The Marseilles Conference opens new prospects for
a cooperation between Europe and its Mediterranean partners in
a priority sector (irrigation, potable water supply, information
to users).
In his closing speech, Hervé de CHARETTE,
French Minister for Foreign Affairs, recalled the interest of
France for a Euro-Mediterranean cooperation and wished that this
partnership would contribute to the setting up of a solidarity
in the Mediterranean.
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