The EuroMED-IMWC Project targets the international cooperation in research and innovation on activities related to the connection beetween inland and marine water issues. Its main objective is the organization and follow-on of the Conference ‘EuroMED cooperation. Inland and Marine Water Challenges’.
The Mediterranean Region is characterized by important feedbacks between human activities and natural processes occurring in upstream river basins and those of the downstream coastal zones, where anthropic and environmental aspects are crucially related. Considering how strongly this mechanism impacts some of the key economic drivers of the Mediterranean area such as fishery, aquaculture and tourism, strategic measures have to be jointly devised and adopted for a sustainable inland and marine water management. Moreover, the geo-political complexity of the area calls for policy efforts towards the efficient connection of different priorities of the Mediterranean countries and actors.
The United Nations Environment Programme Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP) for the Barcelona Convention and the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) - EC COM (2011)200 and EC COM (2011)303 - recognizes the importance of cooperating at international level, as also stated in the conclusions of the Barcelona Euro-Mediterranean Conference on Research and Innovation (April 2012). Besides opening the participation of entities from the whole world to the EU Framework Programme on Research and Innovation, the European Commission (EC) adopted a Strategy on International Cooperation targeting the countries of the European Neighborhood for specific attention (COM(2012) 497). To effectively take advantage of the initiatives already implemented, avoid fragmentation and achieve a sustainable development of the Mediterranean region, innovative long terms initiatives are required.
Within this framework, the National Research Council of Italy - Department of Earth System Science and Environmental Technology (CNR-DTA), under the Italian Presidency of the European Council of the EU with support from the EC - Directorate General for Research and Innovation organizes the EuroMED-IMWC organized the Naples Conference, bringing together scientists and policy makers from EU and non-EU countries to address the overarching question ‘How is it possible to enhance international cooperation on inland and marine water management?’.
Among the overall objectives of the action: to support the Italian Presidency of the EU in addressing relevant priorities of the political debate in the Mediterranean Area; to offer relevant stakeholders from EU and non-EU countries the unique opportunity to discuss and propose ways for tackling the socio-economic challenges associated to the links between inland and marine waters in the Mediterranean Area; to envision the most suitable process that possibly brings to the setting of the concerned governance framework; to address a timely message to the relevant stakeholders on the essential role of the inland and marine waters for the blue and green growth of the Mediterranean countries in the framework on EU/non-EU cooperation. At more focused level, the conference aimed to take stock of ongoing initiatives, identify gaps and ways forward, enhance exchanges between researchers from European and the South Mediterranean countries, strengthen the links between research and policymaking.
