Conclusions of the 1st Water Expert Groupe Meeting, 7-8 Sept'09, Athens

The First Meeting of the Water Experts Group (WEG) of the Union for the Mediterranean was held on 7-8 September 2009, in Athens, Greece. It included representatives from Albania, Algeria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Latvia, Lebanon, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Palestine, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, the European Commission and the League of Arab States and was also attended by representatives of intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations.

The Water Experts Group is intended to implement the provisions included in the Declaration of the Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on Water held at the Dead Sea, Jordan, December 2008, and particularly regarding the "Strategy for Water in the Mediterranean" (SWM).

At the end of the meeting, the water experts group agreed to elaborate the draft SWM, which should be developed as a strategy for action, with an implementation mechanism at regional and national level. A technical drafting group (TDG) composed of Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Spain, Syria, Croatia, the European Commission and the League of Arab Stateswas; was set up under the leadership of Spain, which will host the next Ministerial conference on 12-14 April 2010. Participants agreed that the TDG work should be organised in order that the strategy/action plan will build on existing activities and take into account as far as possible a timetable reviewed regularly with objectives and indicators (taking into account local priorities). The WEG welcomed the proposal to include in the SWM the results of a group of countries working on strengthening the coordination of existing Euro-Mediterranean and regional initiatives and networks on information and expertise. Finally, it will hold its next meeting in Cairo on the 4th November 2009.