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A.
International Conference and Exhibition on Solid Waste
Management in the Mediterranean and Arab Regions, Cairo
6-8 December 1999.
The
Conference was co-organised by RAED, MIO-ECSDE and
Envirotech Ltd.-Middle East, in co-operation with the
Organisation of the Arab Cities (Kuwait) under the
auspices of H.E. Dr. Atef Ebeid, the Egyptian Prime
Minister. The venue of the meeting was the Semiramis
Intercontinental Hotel situated on the Nile.
Municipal
waste and litter are an obvious major problem in the
Mediterranean and Arab regions and despite the many
recommendations for needed urgent action it is difficult
to achieve due to existing complex synergies of economic,
political and socio-cultural factors.
The
Conference, the slogan of which was: Starting
where others have ended, was a great success and
managed to bring together representatives (around 160)
from national and local authorities, international
organisations, academia, specialised enterprises and
consultancies, environmental NGOs and citizen’s
organisations with keen interest in the issue of
management of municipal waste. It succeeded in linking
efforts between the North and the South, amongst those of
the South involved, and beyond, and sensitised
decision-makers at least in Egypt. The output of the
Conference will also provide a valuable input to the
Regional Solid Waste Management Conference to be held by
the World Bank in March 2000 as well as to the EUPHEMET
meeting to be held by MIO-ECSDE in Athens, in April
(17-18, 2000).
An
exhibition was also held in parallel to the Conference
with a wide range of exhibitors. MIO-ECSDE was one of them
and in its stall also exhibited poster presentations of
the 6 activities held by Member NGOs for the Clean-up
Campaign entitled Mediterranean Action Weekend.
MIO-ECSDE
would like to once again express its heartfelt thanks to
RAED, AOYE and Envirotech for their excellent
organisational skills and unmatched hospitality. The MIO-ECSDE
Secretariat looks forward to joining efforts in a similar
fashion very soon in the future.
The
proceedings of the meeting will be published in English
and Arabic (or French) and will be sent out to the MIO-ECSDE
Membership and Network around the end of February. They
will also be available on our web page www.mio-ecsde.org
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B.
The 14th Meeting of the MIO-ECSDE Executive Bureau was
held in Cairo on Monday, December 6, 1999
Issues
discussed were:
Final
points concerning the Conference and the best
dissemination of its results
Next day’s AGM and up-coming elections
Meeting with the EU Commissioner for the Environment
Margot Wallstrom
Relations with other Mediterranean NGO networks
Up-coming meeting with UNESCO and the Greek Government for
the revitalization of the SEMEP.
Membership status of countries bordering the Mediterranean
(e.g. Portugal and Jordan). To date they have only been
granted corresponding status and this should be
reconsidered.
New membership applications
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C.
The 4rth Annual General Meeting of MIO-ECSDE
The
4rth Annual General Meeting of MIO-ECSDE was held on
Tuesday the 7th of December 1999 at 15:00. It was attended
by 27 Member organisations from 12 Mediterranean countries
representing a total of 38 Voting member NGOs. During the
meeting the Chairman and the Secretariat presented the
activities of 1999, the provisional financial status for
1999, the approved budget for 1998, the proposed
activities for 2000 along with a provisional budget for
2000.
Upon proposal of the Executive Bureau the AGM approved by
individual unanimous vote the following NGOs as members of
MIO-ECSDE:
Full
Members:
Mediterranean SOS Network (International)
Fondo EuroMediterraneo per lo Sviluppo SocioCulturale
(FEM)(Italy)
Association U. MARINU (France)
APENA (Tunisia)
Nature Trust (Malta)
Federation of Environmental and Ecological Organisations
(Cyprus)
The Jordanian Environment Society – Amman (JESA)(Jordan)
The Society for the Protection of Nature (SPNI)(Israel)
Corresponding
upgrading to Full Members:
AEB (Algeria)
ADPE-La Marsa (Tunisia)
AMWAJ for the Environment (Lebanon)
Green Steps for Environmental Literacy(Turkey)
The
MIO-ECSDE membership is now 87 member organisations
By resolution of the AGM Full Membership status can from
now on be awarded to Portuguese and Jordanian NGOs
according to the common procedures for candidature. Up
till now they had been accepted only as corresponding
members.
The newly elected Executive Bureau of MIO-ECSDE is
comprised of:
Chairman:
M. Scoullos
Co-Chairman:
Y. Nouri
Elliniki Etairia:
E. Constantianos
EEB:
J. Ribas Ribas
RAED:
E. Adly
France:
J. Doucet
Italy:
S. Illuminato
Jordan:
R. Mussa
Morocco:
M. Ftouhi
Spain:
P. Abeledo
Turkey:
E. Anil
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D.
The 15th Meeting of the MIO-ECSDE Executive Bureau was
held in Cairo on Wednesday, December 8, 1999
It
was a brief meeting with the newly elected members of the
Executive Bureau (see above). After the official welcome
to the new members of the Bureau and expressions of
gratitude to Dr. E. Adly for his past services as
Co-Chairman of MIO-ECSDE by the Chairman, the members
discussed possible future models of the Federation, the
activation of the scientific and other committees, the
next EBM, etc. Tasks were appointed to the various members
and the meeting was adjourned.
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