Head of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA), Ali Abu Sinna; led a high-level delegation from the Ministry of Environment, and participated in the meeting of the contact points for the Convention to Protect the Mediterranean Environment from Pollution “Barcelona Convention”.
22 countries representing the member states of the convention, representatives of the regional centres affiliated with the convention and a number of international organizations are participating in the conference, including the United Nations Environment Programme, the European Union, and civil society representatives.
Abu Sinna pointed out the importance of this meeting in discussing a number of important environmental decisions, in many areas such as biodiversity, achieving integrated coastal management of Egyptian beaches on the Mediterranean, preventing marine pollution from ships, and studying technical reports concerned with preserving the Mediterranean environment and the effects of climate change on it.
He also highlighted the importance of discussing and evaluating the achievements made for the past two years, 2022-2023 and approving the plan for activities and the proposed budget for the years 2024-2025.
The chief of the EEAA added that the meeting reviewed the most important achievements of the Compliance Committee, which was chaired by Egypt for a period of two years 2022-2023, during which amendments to the tasks and nature of the committee’s work were approved and many important decisions were approved regarding the annual reports of the member states of the agreement and dealing with cases of non-compliance. submitted to the committee.
He further explained that the meeting came up with the adoption of the decisions that were discussed and the issuance of the final report in preparation for submitting it to the meeting of the parties, which is held once every two years and scheduled to be held in December in Slovenia, for final approval.
Egypt is scheduled to host the 24 conference of the parties, scheduled to be held in December 2025.
On the sidelines of the meeting, the Abu Sinna held a meeting with Tatiana Hema – the General Coordinator of the Mediterranean Action Plan, to discuss the broad outlines of Egypt hosting the next Meeting of the parties.
The Barcelona Agreement is one of the most important environmental agreements signed by Egypt, and the most important from the perspective of preserving the Egyptian marine environment and protecting it from pollution.
