The first Ministerial Conference of the Dialogue “Water 5+5”: Towards a Water Strategy in the Western Mediterranean, Algiers (Algeria), 30-31 March 2015
The first Ministerial Conference of the Dialogue “Water 5+5” will be held in Algiers (Algeria) on Tuesday, March 31st 2015. Previously to the Conference, an Expert Meeting will be held on Monday 30th of March 2015. On behalf of Algeria and Spain, promoters of the Initiative towards a Water Strategy in the Western Mediterranean, the text of the Water Strategy to be endorsed by the Ministers during their meeting on March 31st in Algiers is almost ready. This strategy document has incorporated the oral comments made during the three seminars held in Valencia and Oran and the written proposals received since then. The Strategy for Water in the Western Mediterranean (WSWM) aims at providing a guiding document with orientations and objectives on water resources management and protection agreed by the Western Mediterranean countries, supported and enriched through inputs from stakeholder groups. The long-term WSWM’s objectives are to preserve water quality and to balance quantity of used and available water to achieve regional sustainable economic growth, social prosperity, access to water for all and environmental protection and rehabilitation. The WSWM aims at stimulating the development of policy, cooperation and technological tools, promoting the exchange of knowledge and contributing to share prosperity. The WSWM is structured around 13 priority issues, grouped in three thematic blocks: starting on the cross-cutting subjects and widely accepted basic orientations on water management, followed by regional interest issues adapted to the specific context of the Western Mediterranean, and the last one focuses on more technical objectives, according to the specificities proposed by the 10 countries in order to improve water management. In order to address specific water challenges and help achieve solutions to problems of regional concern with a focus on sustainability, an Action Plan will be developed and followed-up. The Action Plan will assist in the successful implementation of the WSWM and will be annexed to the Strategy and will compile the proposals from the 5+5 Members. It will detail projects and initiatives with specific objectives, geographical scope, financing plans, foreseen indicators and schedule, and it will allow to visualise the most pragmatic part of the Strategy.
The Western Mediterranean
Forum, commonly referred to as 5+5 Dialogue, was officially launched in Rome in
1990 as an informal sub-regional forum of countries geographically situated on
the western rim of the Euro-Mediterranean littoral and comprising of Algeria,
France, Italy, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Tunisia.
As a trans-Mediterranean security initiative, the rationale of the 5+5 Dialogue is to secure closer cooperation between the five EU member states and the five Arab Maghreb countries through political dialogue and economic cooperation and by encouraging more efficient management of resources as a means of enhancing regional interdependence and development.
The importance of achieving a
closer and action-oriented cooperation among the Mediterranean riparian states
is reflected in the development and implementation of several regional
processes including in the efforts of consolidating the Union for the
In that context, the
Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on Water (
This proposal was endorsed at
the Malta Summit held in October 2012 by the Heads of State and Government of
the 5+5 Dialogue. The 5+5 Foreign Ministers agreed in
The initiative was announced
during the 68th Session of the UN General Assembly in
The first Workshop to launch a
Water Strategy for the Western Mediterranean took place in Valencia on 25-26
February
During these workshops the main interest issues common to the 10 countries and regional entities have been broken down, synthesised and prioritised. These reflect, firstly, the characterization and current problematic of our common area in relation to water and, secondly the main joint priorities presented by the different national delegations.
This strategy is expected to be adopted at the First 5+5 Ministerial
Water Conference in