— The General Director of Foreign and EU Relations, Jesús Gamallo, participated in the closing session of the eighth edition of the international seminar on the subject.

— The event brought together more than 300 representatives of municipalities and regions from the EU and the Global South for three days in Brussels.

Brussels, December 1, 2023. The Director General of Foreign and EU Relations, Jesús Gamallo, participated in the closing session of the eighth edition of the Cities and Regions for International Partnerships Forum, held since last Wednesday in Brussels, where he advocated decentralized cooperation in the European Union. As a representative of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) and as a member of the Commission for Citizenship, Governance, Institutional and External Affairs, Gamallo also stressed the importance of regions and cities in the implementation of policies aimed at achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In addition to the 2030 Agenda, the other focus of the forum  was the so-called Global Gateway, the European strategy that aims to mobilize 300 billion euros between 2021 and 2027 to close the financing gap for the SDGs by creating links at the global level that drive investment in sustainable and quality infrastructure with the capacity to transform various sectors. Jesús Gamallo noted that its strategic approach “complements the horizontal, participatory and democratic strengthening-oriented development model of decentralized cooperation.”

The Cities and Regions for International Partnerships Forum aims to generate a space for dialogue in the field of development cooperation carried out in a decentralized manner.

The Director General highlighted the work developed in the 25 round tables organized during the forum around investment, innovation, inclusion and intermediary cities, stressing “the importance of urban diplomacy, peer-to-peer cooperation, citizen participation or collaborative networks between cities as key actions to provide a territorial dimension to the Global Gateway strategy”.

Co-organized by the Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) of the European Commission and the European Committee of the Regions for the past 14 years, the aim of Cities and Regions for International Partnerships is to create a space for dialogue in the field of decentralized development cooperation. At these biannual meetings, local and regional authorities from European countries and their partners seek joint solutions from a subnational perspective. This latest edition brought together 260 representatives from the Global South, including a local Honduran representative proposed by Cooperación Gallega.

More information: Xunta de Galicia