The objectives are those of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and target long-range sustainable development around the Mediterranean Sea in the context of transboundary economic, environmental and socio-political problems.
The approach is to concentrate on a set of following strategic areas:
- Socioeconomic modernisation,
- Promoting healthy societies and regional environmental sustainability,
- Managing scarce regional water resources:
This theme targets comprehensive cross-sectoral policies and integrated approaches in the planning and management of water resources which are environmentally sound and implemented in a participatory mode. Special emphasis is laid on the transboundary character of water resources that needs addressing under a regional perspective. Two priorities have been identified:
Comprehensive water policy and integrated planning
Improvement of water supply, planning and management with consideration of local environmental and socioeconomic (including pricing) as well as institutional and cultural conditions, of intersectoral competition and of the potential to treat and reuse wastewater; methodologies for the analysis and management of transboundary water resources to support regional cooperation in its development and use; promotion of water treatment and reuse, including desalination, with emphasis on the use of renewable energies.
Efficiency in water use
In the agricultural sector, through the development of sustainable irrigation technologies and water-saving approaches, reuse of drainage water, better knowledge of plant physiology in order to reduce water requirements; in the urban / industrial context (including tourism) through the development of water treatment and reuse approaches and technologies that take into account the diversity of industrial, runoff and domestic effluents. Efficiency in water use should be researched under prevailing socioeconomic and institutional arrangements in Mediterranean partner countries.
These areas of specific relevance to the region are not addressed under the thematic programmes of the fifth framework programme or under the research for development part of this programme and were selected through an extensive process of Euro-Mediterranean dialogue. (21th December, 2001)
Further Information & Contact:
Bureau for International Research
and Technology Cooperation/Austria (BIT)
National EU-Contact Point
"Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development"
Phone: +43 1 5811616-113
fax: +43 1 5811616-16
