More than 400 participants at Cités Unies France’s Meetings “the internationalization of towns and regions” 2018
Cités Unies France welcomed over 400 participants, including representatives from more than 100 French local authorities, 70 elected representatives and 25 countries at the Meetings “the internationalization of towns and regions”, organised on 4 July 4 2018, at the Pavillon d’Armenonville in Paris.
These Meetings were a great success, focused around the questions “Facing the increasing urbanisation issues, what role can the local governments play? What is our vision of the world for 2030? What is our local approach to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?” This event was organized in partnership with PLATFORMA.
Co-construction, interactivity, wide participation, concrete commitments… these new participative formats of the Meetings have confirmed their status as a flagship event in the calendar of players of decentralised cooperation, in France and internationally. The ambition of this event, open and participatory, was to express the visions of a world in 2030, more and more urbanised.
The implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by various actors (local authorities, companies, researchers, academics, representatives of civil society) was central to the debates all along the day.
Many personalities had the opportunity to speak: Roland Ries, Mayor of Strasbourg and President of Cités Unies France, Ramon Javier Mestre, President of Mercocuidades, Mayor of Cordoba (Argentina), Emilia Saïz, Secretary General of Cities and Governments United Cities (UCLG), Jérémie Pellet, Deputy Director General of the French Development Agency, Brigitte Bariol Mathais, Director General, National Federation of Urban Planning Agencies (FNAU), Bettina Laville, State Councilor, Chair of the Committee 21 , Ronan Dantec, President of the Climate Chance Association, Christine Moro, Ambassador, Delegate for External Action of Local Authorities – DAECT / MEAE, Martin Bortzmeyer, Head of the Sustainable Development Delegation, Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition, Marlène Simeon, Director of PLATFORMA, Gérard Wolf, President of the Sustainable City Task Force of MEDEF International, and Gérard Pigault, President of the Presidents’ Conference of RRMA.
Three workshops were organised on the themes of Climate, Migration and Youth. Micro-workshops were held in parallel, in a format of 20 minutes each, allowing participants to promote their initiatives, projects and innovative approaches, such as CONNECT, the European Days of Local Solidarity (EDLS), the PLATFORMAwards or the Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa. It was an opportunity to listen and share experiences.
This day, during which Latin America was in the spotlight, was followed the next day by a seminar Europe – Latin America “Crossed perspectives – towards sustainable international action”, organised at the City of Paris by Cités Unies France, AL-LAs network, Mercociudades and PLATFORMA.
Next year, Cités Unies France is organizing the tenth edition of the Meetings.
