Actualités

The 24th Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean (Barcelona Convention) and its Protocols is taking place on 2–5 December 2025 in Cairo, Egypt. Yesterday, during the COP 24 Side Event the “EU-funded projects: a driving force for IMAP implementation and GES in the Mediterranean”, Professor Michael Scoullos, Team Leader of the WES BCA project, made a presentation of a part of the upcoming 27 activities that are currently developing in countries of the Middle East and North Africa (Nov. 2024-Nov.2027).

Phasing out single-use plastics (SUPs) is indeed a challenging issue in the Mediterranean region. The EU funded “Water and Environment Support-Biodiversity and Climate Action (WES-BCA) in the Neighbourhood South region” project is to support the development of a national legal framework for plastic waste reduction in Lebanon, focusing on initiating an EPR scheme for selected single-use plastics (SUPs), especially packaging waste. Following a Kick-off Meeting held on 25/07/2025, WES-BCA organised a hybrid Inception Meeting of its Environment Activity in Lebanon on the 25th of November 2025, in Beirut. The meeting aimed to exchange on the current state of plastic waste management in Lebanon and the region, and to lay the groundwork for WES-BCA support in advancing SUP phase-out and the implementation of an EPR scheme through technical and legal guidance for drafting the relevant legal framework and preparing associated policy recommendations.

Congratulations are in order! The EU EyesOnLIFE Awards honored the 4 winners from Tunisia and Libya, young innovators whose creativity and commitment are turning vision into impact for a sustainable Mediterranean! Active Citizens for Development association Lamia Hamrouni; Abdallah Elfandi; HydroHarvestFarms Since last April, the WES-BCA project supported EU Neighbours South team in multiple ways: Mr. Anis Ismail, WES-BCA Environment Key Expert, was a member of the jury, and all news items were disseminated via the project’s website and social pages.

The WES-BCA project has organised an online kick-off meeting of the water activity in Tunisia, on November 18, 2025. This WES-BCA activity is to contribute to improving the climate resilience of agricultural systems in a pilot area, by developing concrete adaptation strategies for strategic crops (cereals and olive trees), based on identified vulnerabilities, available local resources, and existing knowledge, and by training technical actors to support their implementation.

The WES-BCA project organised an online kick-off meeting of the water activity in Morocco, on November 13, 2025. This WES-BCA activity is to identify, evaluate and adapt technical and management approaches implemented internationally, likely to be transferred and applied in the Moroccan context, and to propose a concrete pilot project to test one of these solutions.

The WES-BCA project has organised an online kick-off meeting of the Regional activity, on November 12, 2025. This WES-BCA activity is to support the Mediterranean Partner Countries in enhancing the implementation of harmonised marine litter monitoring Programmes for all matrixes and to contribute to more effective reporting and mitigation measures aligned with the Regional Plan on Marine Litter Management under the Barcelona Convention.

The WES-BCA project has organised an online kick-off meeting of the water activity in Palestine, on October 20, 2025. This WES-BCA activity is to support Palestine in improving the safe and sustainable use of non-conventional water resources by updating the national standard for treated wastewater reuse (TWWR) and developing a new draft standard for blended water use, in alignment with international good practices and national strategic priorities.

The WES-BCA project organised an online kick-off meeting of the water activity “Low-Cost measures for enhanced water efficiency and NRW reduction: follow-up to the WES action plan” in Algeria, on September 22, 2025. This WES-BCA activity is to strengthen the technical and organizational capacities of the ADE Unit of Boumerdes to improve the management of Non-Revenue Water, by coupling the GIS operation, the reliability of field data, the establishment of a new comparative hydraulic balance sheet, and the optimization of monitoring tools and practices.

The WES-BCA project has organised an online kick-off meeting of the environment activity “Pre-conceptualization and support to establish a Plastic Waste Recycling/Upcycling Hub near existing waste management infrastructure”  in Jordan, on September 16, 2025. This WES-BCA activity is to promote innovation in the reuse, recycling, and upcycling of plastic waste materials in a selected area in Jordan by fostering collaboration with innovation drivers, entrepreneurs, and relevant stakeholders, in support of the implementation of the Waste Sector Green Growth Action Plan 2021–2025.

The WES-BCA project has organised an online kick-off meeting of the environment activity “Support for EQA in preparing the Palestine 7th National Report to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity” in Palestine, on September 10, 2025. This WES-BCA activity is to provide targeted support to Palestine in aligning with the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and Mediterranean biodiversity commitments, actively contributing to the preparation of its 7th National Report due in February 2026.