Strategy for Mediterranean sustainable development

Mediterranean Ministers and senior officials have formally launched a wide-ranging regional strategy for sustainable development as well as a process to restructure the UN Environment Programme Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) co-ordinated by Paul Mifsud.

Contained in the Portoroz Declaration adopted here, the decisions were made during the 14th Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention at this Adriatic seaside resort.

In an exclusive interview with The Sunday Times, Mr Mifsud said: "The adoption of the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development (MSSD) after four years' multi-stakeholder consultations is a historic milestone for both MAP and the Mediterranean. The region has now shown its determination to jointly carry forward the commitments made at the World Summit for Sustainable Development 2002.

"Contracting parties and the secretariat have a huge challenge ahead, so I am particularly pleased that the secretariat has been invited to submit a strategic vision for MAP's future to an extraordinary meeting of MAP Focal Points next year. Their recommendations will be submitted to the next Contracting Parties' conference in Spain in 2007.

"Another key achievement has been the agreement to launch negotiations for a new protocol on integrated coastal area management, to produce an agreed text in time the Spain conference. The regional strategy for prevention of and response to marine pollution from ships, developed by REMPEC Focal Points this year, has also been adopted."

Mr Mifsud and Catherine Day, director-general of the EC Directorate General for the Environment, formally signed a MAP-EC Joint Programme of Work.

The programme's long list of activities is a revealing insight into the inadequate co-ordination to date between the two organisations on a wide range of Mediterranean environmental issues in which both are involved - even though the European Community and seven member states are contracting parties.

As stated by Soledad Blanco, director for international affairs at the European Commission's Directorate-General for the Environment, "this is a concrete step towards ensuring synergy between the activities of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and MAP".

However, the EC delegation rejected calls by the NGOs for contracting parties to invite the forthcoming Euro-Mediterranean Summit in Barcelona (November 27-28) to give a high-profile endorsement in its political declaration to the MSSD. Some diplomatic sources indicate that it may only be mentioned as an input to economic reform measures in the five-year work programme annexed to the declaration.

There was also concern about how the proposed Euro-Mediterranean initiative to de-pollute the Mediterranean by 2020 - a European Commission idea which the Barcelona Summit is expected to adopt - would fit in with the wide range of MAP activities under its long-term programme to end land-based sources of pollution SAP MED, and the related 21 National Action Plans (NAPs) formally endorsed here.

The Portoroz Declaration states that contracting parties decided "to contribute to the implementation of the proposed initiative... based on the MAP ongoing and future work, in particular on the SAP and NAPs".

The EC has convened a high-level multi-stakeholder dialogue in Barcelona on the initiative on November 29, to be attended by Euro-Mediterranean environment ministers (including Minister George Pullicino, unable to come to Portoroz), industry, local authorities, international organisations and some NGOs (including Nature Trust Malta). Mr Mifsud will make a keynote presentation on future MAP-EC synergies.

Numerous recommendations adopted by the conference here indicate a heavy workload for MAP over the next two years.

These include promoting pending ratifications of the amended convention and its protocols; developing a legal liability and compensation mechanism for marine pollution damage; developing a mandatory compliance procedure under the convention; promoting the MSSD and assisting countries to develop related national strategies; promoting cleaner technologies; developing MAP activities on energy; upgrading information and public awareness-raising; and expanding biodiversity protection under the MAP's SAP BIO programme.

The serious state of the Mediterranean environment was highlighted here by a presentation from the European Environment Agency's director-general Professor Jacqueline McGlade, who pinpointed the urgent need for immediate implementation of existing laws. A detailed recent report from the MAP's Blue Plan Centre on Environment and Development in the Mediterranean gives a vast array of gloomy facts, figures and forecasts of present unsustainable trends, while offering alternative sustainable scenarios.

In a curious sideline to Euro-Mediterranean 'partnership', delegates including ministers from four Arab countries - Syria, Lebanon, Algeria and Libya - were unable to get visas to attend the conference. There is no Slovenian consulate in their countries and no solution emerged to allow them to travel.

Convention For The Protection Of The Marine Environment And The Coastal Region Of The Mediterranean, 1995 (the amended 1976 Barcelona Convention; in force since 2004)

Contracting Parties To The 1976 Convention:

EU: European Community*, France*, Cyprus*, Greece*, Italy*, Malta*, Slovenia*, Spain*.

Other Europe: Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Monaco, Serbia Montenegro,

South Med: Algeria*, Egypt*, Israel*, Lebanon*, Libya*, Morocco*, Syria*, Tunisia*, Turkey*.

(*belong to the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership)

6 Protocols to the Convention covering:

¤ dumping and incineration from ships and aircraft (X)

¤ pollution from ships

¤ land-based sources of pollution (X)

¤ specially protected areas and biological diversity

¤ offshore exploration (Y)

¤ hazardous waste

X - amended version not yet in force due to insufficient ratifications

Y - not yet in force due to insufficient ratifications

UN Environment Programme Mediterranean Action Plan Co-Ordinating Unit, Athens - Co-Ordinator: Paul Mifsud

Medpol Athens (Pollution Monitoring)

Regional Activity Centres:

Rempec, Malta (Prevention/Response To Pollution From Ships)

Blue Plan, France (Research/Analysis Socio-Economic Issues)

Priority Actions, Croatia (Coastal Area Management)

Specially Protected Areas, Tunisia (Biodiversity)

Cleaner Production, Spain (Clean Industrial Technologies)

Information/Communication, Italy (Data Gathering/dissemination)