Working Meeting At The Embassy Of Ukraine In Greece
On Monday, November 28, 2016 at the Embassy of Ukraine in Greece, a working meeting was held among representatives of the Network of Cities with Lakes and the Ambassador of Ukraine to Greece, Mr. Volodymyr Skourof, aiming at examining the development of cooperation of the Network with regions and municipalities of Ukraine in issues of proper environmental management of lakes, twinning of Ukrainian and Greek cities (network members) and technology transfer.
The President of the Network, Mr. George Kapentzonis, after presenting the Network and its members to the Ambassador and analyzing the main goals of the Network, proposed examining cooperation with the Region of Odessa, where apart from the strong Greek community, in this area Yalpuh lake is situated, which has features of particular interest to the Network.
Moreover, the region of Odessa with the areas of Galati, Tulcea and Braila (Romania) and Cantemir and Cahul (Republic of Moldova), have established the «Lower Danube Euroregion»in 1998, with the objective of cooperation in the fields of economy, transport, communications and infrastructure, environmental activities and humanities. The aim of the Network of Cities with Lakes is, through its cooperation with the region of Odessa, to take the appropriate expertise that will assist in its smooth evolution to a European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC).
The host of the meeting, Mr. Volodymyr Skourof, after he gladly accepted to contribute to the development of the abovementioned cooperation, proposed in his turn considering cooperation with the Municipality of Mariupol, both because of the existence of a large Greek community, and because it is a municipality facing common problems related to water in many Greek municipalities in recent years (eg. water shortages, privatization of water services, etc.).
Both parties agreed to proceed directly to the necessary actions so as the fields of cooperation will be specified and the next steps will be defined.
