Sustainable development strategy for Mediterranean

A long-term sustainable development strategy for the Mediterranean was adopted here on Wednesday by representatives of 21 nations, the European Community and of civil society.

The representatives were attending the 10th conference of the Mediterranean Commission on Sustainable Development, the advisory body of the UN Environment Programme's Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP)..

The Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development (MSSD) will be submitted for political endorsement in November by the ministerial segment of the 14th conference of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention (1976). Malta is one of the seven EU parties, which also include the European Community and 14 non-EU Mediterranean nations.

Welcoming the Strategy, MAP's co-ordinator Paul Mifsud (permanent secretary at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Resources until May 2004). stated that "after four years hard work, we now have a concrete strategy, with objectives, time-bound targets, benchmark indicators and a regular review procedure"

A senior official representing Malta in Athens told The Sunday Times that the MSSD could play a positive role in ongoing preparations of the National Strategy for Sustainable Development, being steered by the National Commission for Sustainable Development.

The MSSD's introduction warns of a threatening series of 'unsustainable trends'. Critical environmental threats include the rapid loss of agricultural land, desertification, fast depletion of already scarce water resources, polluted and congested urban areas, escalating waste production, degradation of coasts and seas, and over-exploited landscapes and biodiversity. On the social level there is significant poverty in the developing Mediterranean nations, high unemployment, low educational levels, uncompetitive enterprises, defective infrastructure while negative trends are exacerbated by poor national governance and inadequate regional co-operation.

The strategy posits a shared vision of a common destiny generating 'win-win' policy choices to underpin the co-development of North and South, leading to a highly integrated eco-region within an enlarged Euro-Mediterranean area of prosperity and stability.

In addition to new goals the MSSD also incorporates objectives already agreed under existing MAP programmes to implement the Barcelona Convention and its protocols (managed by the UNEP MAP and its six regional activity centres) eg on biodiversity, marine pollution, etc.

The strategy identifies four major objectives and seven areas for priority action and synergy.

The four major objectives propose enhancing the region's assets to contribute to economic development; implementing the Millenium Development Goals to reduce poverty while improving cultural integration; changing unsustainable patterns of production and consumption and ensuring sustainable management of natural resources; improving local, national and regional governance.

The seven interlinked "priority areas for action and synergy" address water resources; energy and climate change; transport; tourism; agriculture; urban development; marine and coastal issues. Time bounds targets ranging from 2010 to 2025 according to the activity concerned.

The MSSD's provisions are intended to be incorporated into national sustainable development strategies as well as regional programmes and projects.

However, the MSSD warns that its successful implementation is largely dependent on the refocusing of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership around the central goal of sustainable development.

In their agreed conclusions of May 31, the Conference of Euro-Mediterranean Foreign Ministers meeting in Luxembourg '"supported the successful conclusion of the drafting of the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development as this will become an important vehicle for mainstreaming sustainable development throughout the Partnership."

However, in an address last Monday to a Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly committee, Stravros Dimas, the European Environment Commissioner, promoted an EC proposal, subsequently endorsed by the Euromed Foreign Ministers, for the "de-pollution of the Mediterranean by 2020". The proposal makes no mention of either on-going MAP activities or of the MSSD, and invites endorsement by the proposed Euromed 10th Anniversary Summit in Barcelona (November 27-28), to be followed by negotiation of detailed targets and programmes next year.

A network of several hundred Mediterranean environmental NGOs strongly criticised this proposal in a press release, stating that "Commission proposals for Mediterranean de-pollution should support and enhance actions already agreed within the framework of the Barcelona Convention and be in line with the objectives of the MSSD, which should receive the formal endorsement of the 10th Anniversary Summit... A separate EU initiative on Mediterranean de-pollution would serve no useful purpose."