A couple of days ago, on the 22nd of October, the Agence France Locale was created during a meeting in Paris. These are the 11 founding members of the agency:
Region Pays-de-la-Loire
Département d’Aisne
Département d’Essonne
Département de Savoie
Communautés Urbaines de Lille
Communautés Urbaines de Lyon
Communautés Urbaines de Valenciennes
Communautés Urbaines de Vallée-de-la-Marne
Ville de Bordeaux
Ville de Grenoble
Ville de Lons-le-Saunier
Among the representatives of the founding members were Jacques Pélissard, Chairman of the Mayors Association, Gérard Collomb, Chairman of Grand Lyon, Michel Destot, Mayor of Grenoble, Alain Juppe, Mayor of Bordeaux and ex-Prime Minister.
An important group of French politicians and and high ranking civil servants joined for a lunch to celebrate the creation of Agence France Locale. Among the guest were Anne-Marie Escoffier, Deputy Minister for local government, Philip Yvin, advisor to the Prime Minister. Furthermore, a group of foreign guest were present: Gunnar Lund, Swedish Ambassador to France, Daniel Goodwin, Executive Director of the English Local Government Association, Alf Egnerfors, Vice-president of the Board of Kommuninvest Cooperative Society, Pekka Averio, CEO of Munifin and Henning Schoppmann, General Secretary of European Association of Public Banks.
Ron Walkier, CEO of Nederlandse Waterschapsbank (NWB), sent the following message: ”wish the newly born a successful and prosperous future”.
Craig Stobo, President of the Board of New Zealand LGFA, sent the following message: ” the NZ Local Government Funding Agency warmly welcomes Agence France Locale to the funding agency ”club”, acknowledges the hard work that you have done to get here, and wishes it every prosperity.”
At the press conference, Marylise Lebranchu, Minister for Local Government, joined and gave the Governments support for the new agency. I was also asked to make some remarks (which can be read here) to the members of the press.
