Francisco de la Torre Prados, mayor of Málaga and representative of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) within the Euro-Mediterranean Assembly of Local and Regional Authorities (ARLEM), was appointed representative of the associations of local and regional authorities* within the ARLEM Bureau.

“My objective, as well as that of the associations I now represent, is to make their voices heard within the Euro-Mediterranean Assembly,” declared Torre Prados at the occasion of his election on 30 January 2012 in Bari, Italy. He also expressed his aim to “share the vast experiences of the associations with the aim of contributing to good European governance through the partnership principal”.

“We need to strengthen the ties between Europe and the South of the Mediterranean,” he continued, “and ARLEM is and must remain the chief instrument for enabling encounters and reinforcing these ties.”

*The associations of local and regional authorities represented within ARLEM are United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the Assembly of European Regions (AER), the Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions (CPMR), the Assembly of European Border Regions (AEBR), the Standing Committee for the Euro Mediterranean Partnership of Local and Regional Authorities (COPPEM), Arco Latino and MedCities.