Tripoli 2008

The MedCities General Assembly of 2008, was held on January 29th-31th in Tripoli (Lebanon) following a generous invitation of the Mayor of Tripoli, Mr. Rachid Al Jamaly.

The following Medcities towns and cities were represented: El Minah (Lebanon) Larnaka (Cyprus) Limassol (Cyprus) Barcelona (Spain) Marseille (France) Ancona (Italy) Rome (Italy) Sfax (Tunis) Sousse (Tunis) Tanger (Morocco) Tetouan (Morocco) and the hosting city, Tripoli.

Zarqa and Grand Lyon cancelled their attendance due to security reasons.

Also the following international institutions were represented: the United Cities and Local Governments-Med. (UCLG), the Autonomous Region of Sardinia as the new EC Managing Authority on Transbordering Programme, Cities Alliance, UNDP-Art Gold, UN-Habitat, the World Bank (WB), the Priority Actions Programme/Regional Activity Center (PAP/RAC), UCLG-Middle East Office, the University of Sfax, the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR-Intermed) and the Italian Cooperation in Lebanon, the Diputació de Barcelona (Province of Barcelona) and the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona.

Lebanese Institutions also represented were: the Minister of Interior and Municipalities, represented by the Governor of North Lebanon, the SAFADI Foundation, the Établissement d´Eaux Liban Nord, the Environmental Conservation, the Technical Institute of Lebanon, the Lebanon University, the Balamand University and the Business Incubation Association in Tripoli (BIAT).

The agreements accorded by the General Assembly were:

• Accept Ancona and Grand Lyon as new Medcities members.
• The Newsletter bulletin will be, from now on, e-Newsletter.
• The city to host the next General Assembly will be chosen by the Bureau among the candidates cities.
• Keep the annual fee in 1000$. The fee collection will be done by the General Secretariat. 
• Nominate Rome as the Presidency, the Metropolitan Entity of Water Services and Wastes Treatment of Barcelona as the General Secretariat and the General Bureau as follows: Barcelona, Marseille, Roma, Tanger, Sfax, Tripoli and Larnaka.
• Promote descentralisation through sectorial working groups leaded by a town member.
• Propose two projects on city development strategies, wastes in the framework of the new law of EU Neighbourhood Policy.
• Promote a project to implement a webtool kit on urban sustainable development resources (MUSDER)
• Ask the network members for their proposals for new projects and training missions.