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EURO-MEDITERRANEAN Meetings:

A.   MEETING OF DIRECTORS-GENERAL FOR WATER

B.   MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE

A Meeting of Director – Generals for Water, will be organised in Turin, Italy on the 18/10/1999, followed by a Ministerial Conference, 18-19/10/1999. The first meeting will focus on the recommendations that will be submitted to the Ministers and its agenda will also include communications of the representatives of NGOs, BLUE PLAN, MEDTAC, IME and CDS.

The Ministerial meeting will include brief statements by the Ministers of the participating countries, discussions and adoption of the conclusions and of the Conference Document.

At the moment the ‘Comité de Suivi’, is trying to arrange an NGO pre-meeting, in order to facilitate the formulation of an NGO statement and submit it at the Ministerial Conference. 

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 LIFE WEEK: PUT LIFE INTO YOUR ENVIRONMENT

DGXI of the European Commission will organise a Conference under the title “LIFE Week – Put Life into Your Environment”, dedicated to the LIFE Programme, 20-23/10/1999 in Brussels (Charlemagne Building, rue de Loi 170). 

The LIFE Week will include amongst others a Mediterranean Session, under the title “LIFE to the Mediterranean”, on the 23^rd of October, co-chaired by MIO-ECSDE and MEDForum. The objectives of this session will be:

(i) to strengthen the Mediterranean dimension of LIFE projects, 

(ii) to identify and broaden the synergies and co-operation among NGOs, National and Local Authorities for the implementation of LIFE projects,

(iii) To examine the role of Mediterranean NGO Networks in the facilitation of LIFE projects, in the short and long term, by disseminating existing results, as negotiators between the European Commission, National Authorities etc.

MIO-ECSDE and MEDForum are now cooperating to draft a relevant position paper. Its final version will be included in a forthcoming issue of the ‘Sustainable Mediterranean’.

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Briefing on FORTHCOMING MEETINGS IN Malta

11^th Ordinary Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea Against Pollution and its Protocols, Malta, 27-30 / 10 / 1999

The meeting’s agenda includes amongst others:

(i) Progress Report of the Executive Director on the implementation of the Mediterranean Action Plan 1998-1999 (Ministerial segment).

(ii) General discussion on environment and sustainable development in the Mediterranean region (Ministerial segment).

(iii) Proposed recommendations and programme budget for 2000-2001 biennium and contributions by the Contracting Parties to the Mediterranean Trust Fund for 2000-2001 biennium.

(iv) Adoption of the report of the meeting.

NGO Pre-meeting to the official meeting, malta, 24-25/10/1999

The NGO pre-meeting will be organised by MIO-ECSDE, MEDForum ECO-Malta and Nature Trust. Due to the fact that the meeting has a very low budget, it will be limited to approximately 20 NGO representatives, mainly members of the Executive Boards of the two international co-organisors. The objective of the meeting is to formulate an NGO position paper to be submitted at the meeting of the Contracting Parties. The position paper will be communicated to MIO-ECSDE’s Member-Organisations through the ‘Sustainable Mediterranean’.

13^th EXECUTIVE BUREAU MEETING, malta, 25/10/1999

On the occasion of the organisation of the Malta NGO pre-meeting, MIO-ECSDE will convene its 13^th Executive Bureau Meeting, on the afternoon of the 25^th of October in Malta. The agenda will include issues related to the completion of MIO-ECSDE’s 1999 Work Programme, the organisation of the Mediterranean Waste Conference and the forthcoming AGM, in Egypt, the first results from the Mediterranean Action Weekend etc. 

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MEDITERRANEAN ACTION WEEKEND

The Mediterranean Action Weekend is a pilot venture, coordinated by MIO-ECSDE and is a common, small/medium-scale action throughout the Mediterranean counties. This year it is dedicated to solid waste clean-up and it is estimated that at least one NGO per Mediterranean country will be involved. Each NGO will have the initiative and responsibility for the set up of the event, preferably within October. Some suggestions that have been given by the Secretariat are:

clean-up operation of a park, beach, river bank, etc. with students from a local school,

clean-up operation of a specified area with the staff members of the local municipality, local cooperative, women’s association, etc.,

a small campaign revolving around the strategic instalment of litter and/or recycling bins (donated by a private company) were they never existed before,

clean-up operation of a specified area with other NGOs while involving citizens which are not traditionally included in such actions such as the deaf, otherwise physically impaired, etc.

A synthesis of the events in the various Mediterranean countries will be prepared by the MIO-ECSDE Secretariat and will be presented at the Major Waste Conference that will be organised in Egypt, probably in December.