The 22 Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention appoint Focal Points to review every two years the progress of work and ensure the implementation of recommendations at the national level. The National Focal Points of Plan Bleu – Regional Activity Centre were gathered from 27 to 29 May 2019 in Marseille (France) in order to examine the implementation of Plan Bleu’s Programme of work for the biennium 2018-2019 and to discuss and approve the proposed Programme of work for the biennium 2020-2021, prior to its submission to the Meeting of the Focal Points of the Mediterranean Action Plan (10-13 September 2019) and to the Twentieth Ordinary Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention and its Protocols (2-5 December 2019) for adoption.
One of the MedECC coordinators, Joel Guiot, participated to this meeting in order to discuss the progress of the 2019-Report on the State of the Environment and Development in the Mediterranean (SoED2019) prepared by UNEP/MAP and key partners at the request of the Mediterranean riparian countries and the European Union. MedECC contributes to SoED 2019. In close cooperation with Plan Bleu, MedECC co-leads the “Climate change” chapter of the SoED 2019.
At the end of 2017 the Plan Bleu (UN Environment /MAP Regional Activity Center) signed the agreement with the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean to jointly support MedECC. In this context Elen Lemaitre-Curri (Director of Plan Bleu) presented the progress of MedECC.
Photo and introduction: Plan Bleu