ORU’s next Assembly will be held in November in the Basque Country

This year’s meeting will focus on the 10th Anniversary of the United Regions Organisation

The next meeting of ORU Fogar’s Executive Bureau and General Assembly will be held in the Basque Country on the 27th and 28th November 2017, under the auspices of the Basque Government and its lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu. After the last assemblies held in South America (Cartagena de Indias, Rio de Janeiro and Quito), the meeting will go back to Europe, a territory that has always pioneered the defence of regionalism.

This assembly has the particularity of celebrating 10 years since the creation of ORU Fogar, which will be celebrated throughout the year 2017. A variety of activities have been organised to commemorate the anniversary, an event to recognise the role of the founding members in that initial impetus and the work of the organisation’s presidents. It will provide an opportunity to review the path travelled, but also to relaunch our movement, to regroup forces, to recruit new enthusiasm and to adapt our speech to the new circumstances. 

After the anniversary celebration, the assembly will focus again on the future. with the support of our partners and several UN agencies (UN Habitat, FAO, UNDP and ILO), ORU Fogar’s Work Group  will meet to try to find answers to the challenges that regions are currently facing, such as climate change, sustainable development, food security, respect for cultural diversity, job creation. All of this, looking to meet our commitments regarding the SDGs and the global agenda.

Lastly, the Awards Ceremony for the II Regional Best Practices Award will take also take place in the Basque Country, launched by ORU Fogar and the United Nations Program for Development (UNDP) in January. The five best practices submitted will be awarded and published on ORU’s Best Practices Database, recently created to promote efficient innovation and management of public administrations worldwide.