European and International Mayoral Associations open to cooperation with Mayors for Peace

March 17, 2007

Report on CEMR and UCLG meetings, Paris, 14-16 March

Large strides were made over three days in Paris in establishing cooperative relationships between Mayors for Peace and the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, on the one hand, and the Union of Cities and Local Governments, on the other. 

Campaign Manager, Aaron Tovish, spoke at the CEMR member-directors meetings at the invitation of CEMR Secretary-General Jeremy Smith.  He introduce the 2020 Vision Campaign, the Good Faith Challenge theme, and the Cities Are Not Targets project, and took the opportunity to thank CEMR for circulating the draft CANT resolution to its member associations.  He concluded by asking for their guidance on how, in the coming month, CEMR could help elevate these ideas to the international level through UCLG. 

Thursday was spent in private meetings since the UCLG committee working sessions were open only the members of each committee.  The first stop was the South Korean Embassy for a meeting with Ambassador Kim Sook charged with promoting the UCLG World Congress in Jeju.  Mr. Tovish was accompanied by Stephen Redsen of Pour la Terre.  Pour la Terre has developed a special relationship with UNESCO and UNEP, for whom the group has produced world music CDs and young people’s educational packets.  Pour la Terre also organized a concert in San Francisco.  Tovish and Redsen explored with the Ambassador how Mayors for Peace and Pour la Terre would like to offer to supplement the host’s cultural offering with some world music and an information packet for teachers of young people that Mayors could take home with them from Jeju.

The next meeting was set up by the Dutch mayoral association, VNG, whose President is Mayor Wim Deetman of The Hague.  It was with Alexandra Sizoo, the head of their Cities Diplomacy project, which is funded by the Dutch Foreign Ministry and aims to hold a world conference in June 2008.  As this project is being advanced internationally through the UCLG, Mr. Tovish indicated that Mayors for Peace would be honored to take part.  The next day, Mr. Tovish spoke briefly with Mayor Deetman, thanking him for helping Mayors for Peace launch the CANT project in 2006.  Mayor Deetman confirmed that he wants Mayors for Peace to be deeply involved in the City Diplomacy project.   There will be a planning meeting in Barcelona in September for the 2008 conference to which Mayors for Peace is invited.

Margarita  Obiols, the person in charge of public relations and other aspects of the Jeju preparations, told Mr Tovish that UCLG wants to make ‘Peace’ one of the major themes of the World Congress.  They hope to rely upon the Mayors for Peace to help develop the theme for a plenary session of the Congress and at least one workshop.  She was very pleased that Maors for Peace received a good response from the South Korean Ambassador and was interested to know more about what Pour la Terre could offer on the culture side of things.  The next day she, Ambassador Kim, and Mr. Tovish held a three-way meeting of Jeju-Korea, UCLG, and Mayors for Peace so that everyone would be “on the same page.

Friday Mr. Tovish observed the UCLG plenary sessions and took part in the lunch.  During the plenary on Jeju, the UCLG narrowed down the plenary topics to three, Peace being one of them.  The Koreans had emphasized over and over the importance of Peace to Korea, “the only country remaining divided after the Cold War.”  Each plenary will have several workshops that expand upon the plenary theme.  UCLG wants Mayors for Peace to help it develop the Peace theme a possibly a workshop on cities, war and terrorism.  It is likely that the President of Maors for Peace would be a main speaker at the plenary.  The new UN Secretary-General has been invited to speak at the World Congress; given his country of origin, it seems likely he will accept.

In summary, there appears to be great latitude for:

n     Continuing to aim for CANT support from CEMR at its Policy Committee meeting in June in Brussels.

n     Cooperation with UCLG World Affairs Committee and City Diplomacy project, with a view to participating in Barcelona planning meeting in 2007 and playing a prominent role at The Hague world conference in 2008.

n     Cooperation with UCLG on World Congress Peace theme/plenary and offer to organize a workshop on CANT and related subjects.

n     Cooperation with Korean hosts and UCLG on cultural/educational aspects of the World Congress with the assistance of Pour la Terre.