Miljø- og Planlægningsudvalget 2010-11 (1. samling)
MPU Alm.del Bilag 728
Offentligt

Peter GötzDeputy of the FederalRepublic of GermanyPresident of the GlobalParliamentarians on Habitat

Hon. Jerko Rošin,President of the EuropeanGlobal Parliamentarians on Habitat

Hon. Luka Bebić,

President of the CroatianParliament

Mr. Zvonimir Vrančić,

Mayor of the City ofZadar,

Dr. Ante Uglešić,

Chancellor of Zadar University

I would like to wish you a very warm welcome,personally and on behalf of the Board of Directorsof the Global Parliamentarians on Habitat. It givesme great pleasure to see that you have come to ourForum in such great numbers.

I would like to use this opportunity to say thank youto our host, the Croatian Parliament, which isrepresented here today at the highest level by Mr.Luka Bebic. Thank you, Mr. President Bebic, forgiving us the honor of opening our 7th GlobalForum in person.

My special thanks go to the city of Zadar. We wouldlike to thank Mayor Zvonimir Vrančić and DeputyMayor Drazen Grgurovic for their great hospitality.We are fortunate that we can hold our Forum inyour city, a city which is so rich in culture, historyand natural beauty. We have seen the pictures ofthe beautiful old city centre of Zadar.

I remember well how convincingly DrazenGrgurovic presented the city of Zadar on our lastforum in March 2010 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Afterthat it was easy to choose this unique city for ourconference.Seite 3 von 12

I would also like to cordially thank the Chancellor ofthe University of Zadar, Dr. Ante Uglešić, and hisVice-Chancellor, Dr. Srecko Jelusic, for theirwonderful support. Your historic university is anexcellent venue for our discussions.

I also thank the sponsors of Zadar for their valuablecontribution to the success of this conference.

A very big thank you goes to my colleague JerkoRosin, deputy in the Croatian Parliament and newlyelected President of the European Council of theGPH, for his great commitment to the conference.He has prepared this conference together with anexcellent team from the city of Zadar, the CroatianParliament and the Croatian Government and inclose cooperation with our Secretary General inGermany. Thank you very much, Jerko.

The Global Parliamentarians on Habitat havealready held Global Forums in Istanbul, Cancun,Manila, Berlin, and Rabat.

In March 2010, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil hosted oursixth Global Forum. I am pleased to be able towelcome our host of Rio, Eliomar Coelho of theCamara Municipal do Rio de Janeiro here today.Eliomar, welcome!

The Declaration which we adopted in Rio stronglyshows the influence of our long-time President ofthe Board of Directors of the GPH and the currentAlternate President of the Advisory Council, OscarLopez Velarde Vega. Thank you, dear Oscar, forhaving come to Zadar, and welcome!

As you know, the Global Parliamentarians onHabitat work together very closely with the UnitedNations. We are committed to sustainable urbandevelopment and to improving the housing andliving conditions of the people not only in ourcountries but also worldwide. We are committed tothe principle of sustainability as a cross-linking ofenvironmental, social and economic claims. This isan ongoing task of policy, which we have to meet.

The theme of our conference is "Good Laws for aBetter Habitat". In the next two days we want toexchange our experiences and develop solutions tothe issues of "Climate Change and Coastal Cities"and "Legislators as Drivers of Change". Theoutcome of our discussions will be recorded in a"Declaration of Zadar" and carried into our nationalparliaments for implementation.

In addition, the regional councils of the GlobalParliamentarians on Habitat for Africa, Asia,America and Europe have met today at theUniversity of Zadar and some of them have electeda new leadership. I welcome in addition to theSeite 6 von 12

newly elected European President Jerko Rosin fromCroatia, the newly elected Asian President RonaldKiandee from Malaysia.

I greet the President of America Senator RicardoFidel Pacheco Rodriguez from Mexico, who wasappointed last year. Our African President MargaretZziwa-Nantongo from Uganda wanted to come, butshe had problems to travel to Croatia, together withthe entire delegation from Uganda.

It is good that all the continents are wellrepresented here today. This confirms theattractiveness of Croatia and of the City of Zadar,but also that we are a thriving internationalorganization of parliamentarians and that we canface the challenges of the future together.Tomorrow the regional presidents will report to uson the activities on their continents.

From the beginning, the goal of our organizationhas been to support UN-HABITAT. Direct contactwith UN-HABITAT and its partners remains animportant concern of the Global Parliamentarians.

Dr. Joan Clos is the new Executive Director of UN-HABITAT since August 2010. I had the opportunityto discuss our future cooperation with him in Nairobia few weeks ago. I am convinced that the goodcooperation with UN-HABITAT will continue underhis leadership and that we will develop joint projectstogether.

Unfortunately, Dr. Clos had to cancel hisparticipation at our forum at short notice. He hasrequested our friend Dr. Markandey Rai, Chief ofGlobal Parliamentarians and Trade Unions at UN-HABITAT, to represent him.

Through his support, the Global Parliamentarianson Habitat have managed to work together evenmore closely with UN-HABITAT. Welcome, Dr.Markandey Rai.

The world is rapidly changing. In the middle of thenineteenth Century, three out of ten people lived inurban areas. Today it is more than half. Towardsthe end of the century, two thirds of the world'spopulation will live in cities or urban centres, ofwhich one point four billion people will live in slums.

Urbanization and the steering of this urbanizationinto a sustainable direction therefore has to be thetheme of the twenty-first Century. For this reason,an international dialogue on this theme of the futureis more important than ever.

The next two days we want to ask ourselves thequestion of how we can effectively make positivechanges as legislators. We want to discuss whetherand how to protect coastal cities such as those onthe Adriatic Coast, and such as those in many otherregions of the world, against the impacts of climatechange and how the cities themselves can fightclimate change.

Urbanization is a global process and it causes hugeproblems. Many mega-cities have become thenightmare of any housing policy. In these places,we must succeed in breaking the vicious cycle ofpoverty, hunger, housing shortages, lack ofeducation, lack of work, but also of indifferencetowards fellow humans, other creatures and theenvironment.

If we fail to solve the social, environmental andeconomic problems soon, we must expect to dealwith social unrest, crime, abuse of human rightsand even revolts and civil wars, as we areunfortunately currently experiencing in manycountries.

We know very well how difficult it is to raise thenecessary financial and human resources toinfluence the urbanization process in a positive and,above all, sustainable manner.

We parliamentarians have a special responsibility inaddressing these complex challenges. We havereceived this duty from the voters in our countries.

The major problems of the future lie in our cities,which is why the solution of these problems canonly be found together with the cities.

We have to take the people living in cities with uson this difficult path and let them participate in thedevelopment.

In the next few days, we want to develop commonpositions, carry them into our national parliamentsand request our governments to act.

I look forward to many good discussions and to ourshared desire to initiate positive change.

I am strongly convinced that our 7th Global Forumwill be a very special highlight in the history of theGlobal Parliamentarians on Habitat. Working for abetter world is worth it!