MedCities supports the bilateral cooperation between its members by promoting technical and political exchanges in the frame of concrete projects or city-to-city diplomacy. In this context the mayor of Tunis, Mrs Souad Ben Abderrahim, visited the city of Barcelona and held several meetings aiming to move forward in two directions: the bilateral cooperation with the Municipality of Barcelona, following the cooperation agreement signed by the two cities in 2019 and the cooperation with the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona in the frame of the A’SIMA Tunis project.

Concerning the bilateral cooperation, a political meeting was held with the Mayor of Barcelona, Ms Ada Colau, and two technical visits were organised. The first was a visit to the Boqueria Market, guided by the Director of Municipal Markets who explained the internal management of municipal markets and discussed on the challenges of informal commerce in the surroundings of the market, how to structure it in order to avoid conflicts of interest. Secondly, a meeting was held with the Director and team of the Urban Resilience Hub of UN Habitat, based in Barcelona. UN Habitat supports the Municipality of Tunis in identifying urban resilience challenges and risks in the frame of its city development strategy, prepared by A’SIMA Tunis.

Concerning the collaboration of the city of Tunis with the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB), a political meeting was held with the Vice-president of the AMB, Mr Ernest Maragall. Furthermore, a technical discussion was held with the General Manager of the AMB who presented the process of creation of the metropolitan institution and the governance structure. Furthermore, they discussed on the powers of the metropolitan institution especially focusing on waste treatment and valorisation as well as the integrated water cycle management. The meeting was an initial exchange, in the frame of A’SIMA Tunis, while a specific technical study mission on municipal waste management will follow in the first months of 2022. The AMB is leading the waste management component of A’SIMA Tunis project, aiming to improve waste valorisation and to promote intermunicipal cooperation in the area of Grand Tunis.