Maltese to co-ordinate UN environment plan for Med.

As a new member of the European Union, Malta must continue to play an active role in initiatives to achieve sustainable development in the Mediterranean region, according to Paul Mifsud, the recently appointed new co-ordinator of the United Nations Environment Programme's Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP).

Mr Mifsud, who takes up his post in Athens on Tuesday, will become the highest-ranking Maltese official in the United Nations. Permanent Secretary at the Ministry for Resources and Infrastructure until last Friday, Mr Mifsud played a lead role in the EU accession negotiations on environmental issues and has been the Malta focal point for MAP-organised meetings since 1999. He has advised the Minister on Rural Affairs and the Environment to appoint a senior official to take over his focal point activities.

MAP serves as the secretariat for the 21-nation Barcelona Convention, 1975 on the prevention of pollution in the Mediterranean, as well as for the Mediterranean Commission on Sustainable Development, set up by Convention Parties in 1996.

"We are now at a critical juncture in the Mediterranean," Mr Mifsud told The Sunday Times in an exclusive interview. "The Mediterranean environment is under heavy pressure arising from urbanisation, overcrowding and uncontrolled development in coastal areas, intensive agriculture and mass tourism, air pollution, as well as discharges of untreated waste water and toxic substances into the sea. Large-scale maritime traffic in oil and hazardous materials poses a constant threat of accidental and possibly disastrous marine pollution.

"A good start has been made through MAP to tackle the problems, but much more needs to be done", he continued. "In 2001 the Contracting Parties mandated the Commission to draw up a regional sustainable development strategy for adoption at the end of 2005. I personally commit myself to ensure that the draft strategy is delivered on time - with targets, timetables and benchmarks. These are lacking from the present draft, and there is need for a sharper focus on central issues such as pollution, coastal management, poverty, implementation of the commitments undertaken at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in 2002.

"We must also build on the multi-stakeholder architecture of the Commission - which includes representatives of local authorities, NGOs and socio-economic actors - to ensure that the strategy fully reflects the concerns of all Mediterranean people."

Efficient interface between the MAP processes and the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership between the EU and nine South Mediterranean states plus the Palestinian Authority will be a vital component to the successful drafting and implementation of the strategy, Mr Mifsud emphasized. Following enlargement, seven of the 21 Contracting Parties are EU member states - France, Italy, Greece, Spain, Malta, Cyprus and Slovenia.

"My first mission will certainly be to Brussels to talk with senior Commission officials," he stated. "The second Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on the Environment in 2002, called for much closer synergy between the two processes - although until recently, the Partnership has only focused in a minor way on sustainability issues. The Contracting Parties at their conference in Catania last November also listed priorities for co-operation, which will be the basis for a work programme I intend to draw up with the Commission."

However, Mr Mifsud is concerned at possible implications for MAP activities and a regional approach to sustainability issues of EU's New Neighbourhood Policy for countries bordering the enlarged Union. The Commission is finalising Action Programmes with Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority. "I will be seeking clarification from the Commission on this", he said.

"Far greater exchange and co-operation links between MAP's six regional activity centres, including the REMPEC marine pollution centre in Manoel Island, are also essential", he said. "Moreover, MAP needs to expand its links with all other international and regional organisations and networks involved with Mediterranean sustainability issues, including those not addressed so far by MAP - such as renewable energies, with a huge potential in the region. There is also a pressing need to bring all the Barcelona Convention's protocols into force - several are not operational due to lack of ratification by a small number of states. MAP's credibility is at stake here."

A former Director of Information, Mr Mifsud intends to launch a high-visibility MAP communications strategy, and meet with journalists, editors, NGOs and parliamentarians on his official visits to each Contracting Party.

"At present, too little is known of either regional sustainability issues, or the MAP. Informed public opinion is absolutely vital to the success of efforts to achieve sustainable development in our region".