MPU, Alm.del - 2010-11 (1. samling) - Bilag 728: Dokumenter fra konferencen 7’th Global Forum, Global Parliamentarians on Habitat, Zadar, Croatia, 18.

Let me say thank you at the end of a successfulconference. I thank in particular Luka Bebic,President of the Croatian Parliament, ZvonimirVrančić, Mayor of the City of Zadar and his Vice-Mayor Drazen Grgurovic for the great hospitality wehave experienced in this beautiful country and inthis great city.

My special thanks also go to my colleague JerkoRosin and his dedicated team. They ensured thatwe could hold a successful conference which wewill remember as a special highlight in the history ofthe Global Parliamentarians on Habitat.

Yesterday and today under the leadership of ourfriend Jerko Rosin, we have worked hard, so myspecial thanks also go to all those who helped inpreparing the Declaration of Zadar and theworkshops. My special thanks go to the experts,Prof. Luigi Fusco GirardandMr. Stjepo Butijer,and to the panelists who have enriched ourworkshops with their expertise.

I thank you all, that you have shown so muchcommitment in dealing with the difficult challengeswhich lie ahead of us. We also want to work hard inthe future. The homework that lies ahead for usParliamentarians is complex and large. We have aglobal financial and economic crisis. We will meetthem. We have a global climate crisis. This willremain a challenge in the long term future. It mustbe our concern, as responsible parliamentarians, tocombine economic development and environmentalconcerns in such a way that good laws result. Inthis, we must place the people at the centre of ourefforts.

We have received this mandate from the voters inour countries. We, the Global Parliamentarians onHabitat, see this as an obligation to futuregenerations.

In October this year, World Habitat Day will becelebrated in Mexico. We would like to use thisopportunity to organize a meeting of the GlobalParliamentarians on Habitat and participate at theofficial event of UN-HABITAT.

The following year, UN-HABITAT plans to hold their6th World Urban Forum in Naples, Italy. We willactively participate in this important conference, asin previous years and if UN-HABITAT should askus, it will be our pleasure to again organize a roundtable of parliamentarians.

In addition to this, the world event Rio+25 is beingplanned by the United Nations. It will take place inRio de Janeiro. We should actively contribute to thisevent also.

As I mentioned earlier, in 2012, the GlobalParliamentarians on Habitat will exist for 25 years.We will celebrate this anniversary next year.

The 7th Global Forum here in Zadar was animportant milestone in our work, which we havesuccessfully concluded with the Declaration ofZadar.

At the end of this event it falls to me to point out toyou that we will now meet for the Family Photo of allparticipants. I would also like to ask the regionalpresidents for a joint photo.

I would like to thank all who have contributed infront and behind the scenes to the great success ofour forum, the team around our Secretary GeneralBirte Leinius, around Ivana Liovic, Boris Artic andAnita Grzan-Martinovic. I would also like to thankthe translators, together with the students from theUniversity of Zadar and the many other helpers whoassisted us. Their preparation of the conferencehas been excellent and they have ensured asmooth running of the forum. You have done anexcellent job, thank you!

We thank Mayor Vrancic for the great hospitalityand we would like to say to him: we are lookingforward to coming back to Zadar.

I wish all of us a pleasant stay in Croatia. We havethe opportunity to learn more about this god-blessed country today and tomorrow during theexcursions. We look forward to it.

It was nice that you were all there and contributedso actively to the conference. That is why you alldeserve a heartfelt thank you!