Barcelona’s mayor has announced a major international meeting in Sarajevo. The event will unite cities from the District 11 cooperation program. Palestinian representatives are expected to attend as part of post-conflict reconstruction efforts.
Barcelona is set to deepen its international cooperation efforts this autumn, as Mayor Jaume Collboni confirmed plans for a high-level meeting in Sarajevo involving cities from the District 11 program. The announcement, made during Collboni’s official visit to the Bosnian capital, signals a renewed push to support urban recovery in conflict-affected regions, with a particular focus on Palestinian municipalities.
The District 11 initiative, originally conceived during the Balkan wars when Sarajevo was symbolically named Barcelona’s eleventh district, has evolved under Collboni’s leadership. Last year, he extended the concept to include Palestinian cities, aiming to share Barcelona’s expertise in urban reconstruction and public service management. The upcoming Sarajevo meeting is expected to bring together technical teams and municipal leaders who have been collaborating on humanitarian aid and city planning, especially for areas impacted by recent violence.
Collboni’s visit to Sarajevo included talks with the city’s mayor, Samir Advic, and forms part of a broader diplomatic tour that will also take him to Warsaw and Kyiv. In Bosnia, Barcelona’s technical staff—already engaged in projects with partners from Palestine and Jordan—will have the opportunity to learn directly from Sarajevo’s post-war recovery experience. Improving public services and preparing for the long-term rebuilding of war-damaged cities remain top priorities for the program.
The mayor emphasized that District 11 is built on practical, long-term cooperation between municipal professionals—engineers, doctors, nurses, architects, and urban planners—who contribute their knowledge to help cities recover. This hands-on approach, Collboni noted, is now being applied to Palestinian cities, reflecting a shift toward sustained, expertise-driven support rather than short-term aid.
In addition to the Sarajevo summit, Collboni revealed that Barcelona will host the first Mediterranean Mayors’ Conference this November, as part of the Union for the Mediterranean’s Regional Forum of Foreign Ministers. The event, scheduled for November 24-25 at the Palacio de Pedralbes, will gather leaders from around fifteen Mediterranean cities, including Genoa, Izmir, Istanbul, Ramallah, Tangier, Tetouan, Amman, and Montpellier. Sarajevo has also been invited to participate in this new platform for urban dialogue.
The District 11 program stands out in Spain’s municipal diplomacy for its focus on peer-to-peer technical cooperation and its roots in Barcelona’s own history of solidarity. By bringing together cities with direct experience of conflict and reconstruction, the initiative aims to foster practical solutions and long-term partnerships. According to open sources, Barcelona’s international outreach has grown steadily in recent years, with the city increasingly seen as a reference point for urban innovation and humanitarian engagement in the Mediterranean and beyond.
For context, the Union for the Mediterranean is an intergovernmental organization that promotes dialogue and cooperation among countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The upcoming mayors’ conference in Barcelona is expected to address shared challenges such as urban resilience, migration, and sustainable development. The District 11 meeting in Sarajevo, meanwhile, will focus on exchanging technical know-how and supporting cities facing the aftermath of conflict. These efforts reflect a broader trend of Spanish cities taking a more active role in international cooperation, particularly in regions where municipal expertise can make a tangible difference.
