Promoted by the Barcelona City Council, the Strategic Metropolitan Plan of Barcelona (PEMB) is a private non-profit association that brings together the 36 municipalities that make up the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (MAB).

The PEMB also includes the participation of other administrations (the Autonomous Regional Government of Catalonia, the Barcelona Provincial Council and different regional councils); the territory’s most important economic and social bodies, including the Chamber of Commerce, Cercle d’Economia, Foment del Treball (employment promotion agency), the University of Barcelona, the Fira de Barcelona (trade fairs), the Port and the Airport; as well as other regional institutions, including the Mancomunitat de Municipis (the association of municipalities of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona) and the governing bodies of metropolitan transport and environment (the EMT and the EMMA, respectively).

The PEMB was created to identify and promote support strategies for the economic and social development of the MAB. As a result, the association’s main tasks involve analysing and identifying potential in traditional and emerging activities, and anticipating problems and providing their solutions ahead of time.

Thus, the Strategic Metropolitan Plan of Barcelona is an instrument designed to:

• Anticipate future challenges;
• Provide the necessary changes to meet such challenges;
• Promote the participation of all the agents involved;
• Enable a consensus among differing interests;
• Prioritise decisions.

Given the diversity of the institutions and administrations that make it up, the PEMB is a neutral body that serves as a forum for the comparison and contrast of information, the debate of criteria and the study of alternatives, until agreements are reached regarding the different policies to be promoted.

The essential foundation of the PEMB’s work method comprises the consensus, shared leadership and cooperation of all the participating agents in the design of the strategies to be pursued.