The Euro-Med Partnership Environmental High Level Meeting - Horizon 2020, took place on 19 December 2005, in Barcelona, Spain. The meeting, which was organized by the European Union and the Spanish and Catalonian Governments, took place shortly after the Summit of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership of 27-28 November 2005. At the Summit, partner countries adopted a five year work programme that included an initiative to “de-pollute the Mediterranean Sea by 2020,” as proposed by the European Commission (EC).
The meeting in Barcelona brought together over 140 participants from international financing institutions, the Barcelona Convention Secretariat and some of its Regional Activity Centers, local, regional and national administrations, networks of Mediterranean towns, as well as representatives from the private sector and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
The aim of the meeting was to facilitate an exchange of views and reach an agreement on priority actions to be undertaken to achieve the objective of de-polluting the Mediterranean by 2020. In the morning, participants broke into four parallel sessions of stakeholders representing cities, regions, NGOs and the business sector to finalize their statements. Later in the morning, participants engaged in a technical session in plenary, and in the afternoon a ministerial session was held.
The contributions made at this meeting will be considered by the EC in order to produce a draft timetable for action for achieving the goals of the 2020 initiative. The timetable will be the subject of consultations early in 2006 and will then be submitted to the Council of Ministers for adoption. A Euro-Med Ministerial Meeting of Environment Ministers is expected to
be called and to formally launch the initiative in the second half of 2006. More information.
