Barcelona, like so many other cities in the world, just went through an unprecedented health crisis and has to challenge an economic and social emergency of also exceptional dimensions. In this context, international policy has sought to strengthen the municipal response. At the same time, 2020 is the starting point of the 75th anniversary of the creation of the Organization of the United Nations, and both the 25th anniversary of the Declaration that initiated the Process of Barcelona for Euro – Mediterranean regional integration and the renovation of the Barcelona Convention for the protection of the Mediterranean. Moreover the birth is given to a new European Green deal and Climate Pact with new programs and budget that must respond to the triple climate, social and digital challenges and menaces.

According to the aforementioned Master Plan these three areas – Mediterranean, European, global – characterize Barcelona as a global city. The desire to be useful to the City Council as a whole and to enrich the provision of municipal public services define the external action of the City Council which aspires also to make the city advance as a global actor. That said, from the conviction that the challenges facing the city – social inequality, climate emergency – are global challenges and that we need to cooperate and influence internationally to solve them, with the 2030 Agenda and the New urban Agenda as the main framework for action. These are the coordinates of the international relations policy being promoted in this first Master Plan.

MedCities has contributed to some of the chapters related to the strategic objectives, for instance, the visions of the city as a Mediterranean – and international- key actor and its commitment with the SDGs while implementing the projects in the basin area. Also, the Mediterranean cities network has pointed out the importance of the role of cities and municipalities in the preservation of biodiversity and the fight against climate crisis.