Morocco to host 2011 Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly

Morocco will host the next session of the Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly (ARLEM) in January 2011.

This decision was taken Thursday by the members of the Assembly who elected earlier in the day Moroccan Mohamed Boudra, president of Taza-Alhouceima-Taounate region (Northern Morocco), as ARLEM's co-president.

The choice of Morocco to host the ARLEM next session stems from the leading role played by the north African Kingdom in consolidating the relations between the two shores of the Mediterranean.

The election of Morocco as co-president of ARLEM is a recognition of its great efforts in strengthening decentralisation, notably the extensive regionalisation introduced recently by HM king Mohammed VI, Mohamed Boudra told MAP.

The idea of setting up ARLEM came up during the establishment of the Union for the Mediterranean at the 2008 Paris Summit.

The Assembly consists of equal numbers of local and regional representatives from the EU Member States and countries of the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean rim.