Launch

During the 4th World Water Forum in Mexico 2006, in the French Pavilion where the themes of financing and local authority responsibility were so prominent, Mrs Nelly Olin, the French Minister of Ecology and Sustainable Development and M. Angel Gurría, Secretary General of the OCDE, launched a global initiative (initiative description) to extend and strengthen decentralised financing mechanisms that are based on a principle of solidarity between water users. This initiative was supported by many French local authority representatives, and in particular by Myriam Constantin, Deputy Mayor of Paris, representing UCLG.
Mr. Charles Josselin (Cités Unies France) noted the importance of decentralised co-operation and the need to support and develop such initiatives while being careful not to replace national cooperation policy.
Mr. Louis Le Pensec (CCRE) reinforced this vision of European solidarity as being necessary and unavoidable, supported by Mr. Jean Marie Bockel (AMGVF) who insisted on the key role of large local authorities in the North in terms of building the capacities of local authorities in the South.