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Environmental NGOs appeal to the Barcelona extraordinary meeting of Head of States or Government to give central importance to sustainable development in the future work of the EuroMediterranean partnership.


The EuroMediterranean environmental NGO coalition - the Comité de Suivi* (CdS )- an alliance of seven regional networks representing several hundred EU and south Mediterranean environment NGOs focusing on the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership has written an appeal* to the Barcelona Summit calling for sustainable development and particularly its environmental pillar to be given central importance in the EuroMediterranean partnership (EMP).
The current CdS Coordinator Mr Eugene Clancy of Friends of the Earth MedNet commented, "the EuroMediterranean Partners have not taken adequate action so as to reverse the unsustainable development patterns witnessed in the first 10 years of the Partnership. All EuroMediterranean countries need to make use of existing agreements, instruments and new approaches to ensure greater environmental mainstreaming in the future work of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership."

In response to the Barcelona Summit's draft declaration proposal to launch a 2020 Mediterranean depollution initiative, the NGO Comité de Suivi advocates that any proposals of this nature should support and enhance actions already agreed within the framework of the Barcelona Convention and its Protocols and be in line with the objectives of the Mediterranean Strategy for sustainable development* (MSSD) adopted by the ministerial segment of the 14th conference of the contracting parties to the Barcelona Convention in Portoroz, Slovenia (8-11 November, 2005). The MSSD covers seven priority fields of action to achieve sustainable development in the region, with activities to be benchmarked against 33 indicators and reviewed every two years. The European Community, represented by the European Commission and seven Mediterranean Member States - France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Slovenia, Malta and Cyprus - are Contracting Parties to the Convention.

In its appeal to the summit the Comité de Suivi has also expressed its concern that the European Commission advocacy, reflected in the wording of the Barcelona VII EuroMed Foreign ministerial Agreed Conclusions, for accelerated trade liberalisation in industrial and agricultural goods and services to achieve a full Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area (EMFTA) by 2010, includes no mention of incorporating into the related negotiating process the recommendations due at the end of 2006 of the Sustainability Impact

Assessment (SIA) of the EMFTA that the European Commission itself has contracted to Manchester University. The latest SIA research into the economic, social and environmental impacts of the EuroMed free trade Area predict widespread adverse social impacts for Mediterranean partner countries (MPCs) with no significant welfare benefits foreseen. In light of this the CdS calls on Euro-Med countries to freeze* ongoing talks on trade liberalisation until the Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) is finalised at the end of 2006 and the recommendations have been discussed
with stakeholders. The CdS believes that trade negotiations, including any development aid and technical assistance package, should be adjusted in line with the final findings of the SIA.

Contact:
Mr. Eugene Clancy, Friends of the Earth MEDNET co-coordinator,
mednet@foeeurope.org telephone. +34 647089778 or +34 965 652 932

Notes for Editors:

*Members of the Comite de Suivi are: Arab Network for Environment and Development (RAED), Environment and Development Action in the Third World (ENDA), European Environmental Bureau (EEB), Friends of the Earth (FoE/MedNet Programme), Mediterranean NGO Network for Ecology and Sustainable Development (MEDForum), Mediterranean Information Office for Environment, Culture and Sustainable Development (MIO-ECSDE), World Wide Fund for Nature Mediterranean Programme (WWF/MEDPO)

*Environmental NGOs appeal to the Barcelona extraordinary meeting of Head of States or Government
http://www.foeeurope.org/publications/2005/appeal_cds_b_10-16Nov2005.pdf

*The Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development, was drafted by the Mediterranean Commission for Sustainable Development, an advisory body of the UNEP Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP). (http://www.unepmap.org). The MAP services the Barcelona Convention 1976 and its Protocols. The MSSD was formally adopted at 14th conference of the Barcelona Convention in Portoroz, Slovenia (8-11 November, 2005). The text is posted on the MAP
website: http://www.unepmap.org

"Mediterranean Free trade - costly and no real benefit foreseen" - Environmental NGOs position paper on the Sustainability Impact Assessment Phase II of the Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area (Nov 2005)
http://www.foeeurope.org/mednet/sia/index.htm

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