The Fourth Meeting of the Water Expert Group (WEG) of the Union for the Mediterranean

The Fourth Meeting of the Water Expert Group (WEG) of the Union for the Mediterranean was held on May 18th 2011, at the Palau de Pedralbes in Barcelona, Spain to discuss the way forward in the field of water, especially with regards to the identification and development of joint Mediterranean water projects.

The meeting, chaired by the Environment & Water Division of the UfM Secretariat Dr. Rafiq Husseini, included representatives from Albania, Algeria, Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Mauritania, Morocco, Netherlands, Palestine, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, the European Commission, the Arab league, and was also attended by the representatives of inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations.

At the end of the meeting, the participants agreed to draft a work plan for the Water Expert Group  for the rest of 2011 and 2012 in accordance with the Jordan Ministerial Declaration on Water (December 2008), and follow up on the other tasks defined by the Declaration

The meeting has addressed two main issues. First, the need to proceed with the preparation of the drafting of the Action Plan as decreed by the Ministerial conference on water held in the Dead Sea (Jordan) in December 2008, so that the UfM strategy and its action plan (if ready) may be submitted together for endorsement whenever the Co-Presidency deems appropriate. A full agenda and other relevant information will be provided as soon as it is finalized.

Besides the participants committed themselves to follow the recently approved UfM project guidelines when submitting their respective country projects in the field of water. They have also decided to pursue organizing sub-regional WEG meetings to assist countries in developing projects proposals. In addition, they agreed to share and exchange best practices in water resource management and maintain close coordination through the Secretariat in order to ensure harmonization and complementarity of their efforts.

At the end the participants proposed the labelization of the project of desalination for Gaza.