Marseille is a major Mediterranean port and enjoys a geographical location that naturally endows it with an international dimension, whilst forging a link between Europe and the Mediterranean. Building on these assets, the City has developed numerous partnerships, in particular with Alexandria, Algiers, Barcelona, Beirut, Genoa, Haifa, Hamburg, Marrakech, Odessa or, yet again, Tunis and Tripoli (Lebanon), placing sustainable development at the very heart of these decentralized cooperation actions. Marseille’s expertise is broadly acknowledged thanks to the development of a territorial climate plan, the creation of a Quality Charter, commitment to European projects such as CAT-MED and Gouvernance which promote a model for sustainable urban development. These processes generate as many opportunities to develop a network of sustainable partnerships and provide leverage to facilitate economic development and trade for territorial companies.

Marseille Provence Métropole urban Community, which is made up of 18 communes amounting to almost one million inhabitants, was created in July 2000 to accomplish 3 missions: supporting metropolitan facilities, modernising urban services, developing economy. The entrusted know-how: area improvement, economic development, water management, transport, all of which enable Marseille Provence Métropole urban Community to play a major role toward sustainable development in the Mediterranean area. Within the scope of the Campus Scheme, its 165-M€ participation to improve the public transport network serving the venues dedicated to Higher Education and Research illustrates this. Indeed, Marseille Provence Métropole urban Community ranks as a Euromediterranean capital for exchange and knowledge; it is the day-to-day breeding ground in the fields of innovation (research, incubator, business nursery, Technology parks and competitiveness clusters) for a high added value sustainable development in the Mediterranean.

The Marseille Provence Chamber of Commerce and Industry is the oldest CCI in the world and has always been engaged in the Mediterranean area. Always watchful of projects happening in this region, the Marseille Provence CCI works for the development of synergies between those involved. The Marseille Provence has chosen 3 main axes of intervention in the Mediterranean: commitment for the position of the Marseille logistic and port platform in the Mediterranean; a strong action for the business in the Mediterranean through missions, trade fairs and business conventions; the construction of a business oriented training offer. Every year, the Marseille Provence CCI assists more than 400 companies in the Mediterranean by creating, co-organising or participating in a dozen of trade fairs, missions or business conventions. In order to sustain this concrete business vocation, the Marseille Provence CCI supports the “4th Mediterranean Economic Week”.

Given the increasing relevance of partnerships in addressing current global challenges, the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs welcomes the stronger role of local and regional authorities, South and North, and the need to establish renewed partnerships with all actors who contribute with their skills and experience to decentralised cooperation.

Economic partnerships are one of the areas of decentralised cooperation and an essential dimension after institutional cooperation. Economic partnerships rely on the capacity of local and regional authorities to mobilise actors in their territories (through an inter-sectoral approach involving, among others, businesses, universities, research centres and chambers of commerce).

Moreover, in order to address development challenges in the region, the Mediterranean is one of the leading geographic priorities in decentralized cooperation support initiatives. Concurrent with the actions undertaken by representatives of local and regional authorities, such as the Mediterranean Commission of UCLG or EMRLA, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs wishes to support local governments and the development actors in their territories who contribute to economic expansion on a basis of mutual advantages.