Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona

On Wednesday, 14 December, CIDOB (Barcelona Centre for International Affairs) and the AMB organised a training seminar on international trends and proposals in a local context. The aim of the seminar was to inform and to act as a forum of debate on the current lines of work in the international context, viewed from a local perspective. More than 25 people took part in the training initiative, sharing their experiences within this field and confirming how the realities at an international and local level are interrelated.

Oriol Illa, director of the AMB International and Cooperation Area, was responsible for opening the event which included experts and researchers from CIDOB, one of them being Anna Ayuso, who set out the links between the Pact of Amsterdam on the Urban Agenda for the EU and the post-Habitat III agenda, as well as the challenges and implications of this for local governments.

For their part, Luigi Carafa and Eckart Woertz dealt with the consequences of climate change for the agendas of cities, and their role in confronting this.

Eduard Soler explored how conflict and unrest affects the cities of the Mediterranean and possible strategies of resilience for the cities and their populations. Following in this theme, Blanca Garcés highlighted the lack of coordination between state and local policies for the resettlement of refugees in the Mediterranean, in view of the fact that asylum policies are a matter of national jurisdiction even though, in practical terms, the resettlement of refugees takes place at a local level.

Lastly, Josep Maria Coll focused on the change of paradigm implied by developing into a wise city.