The workplan for the coming 12 months was endorsed on 23 November 2020 during the 2nd WES Steering Committee Meeting (SCM) which was held online. The meeting focused on taking stock of the project’s achievements so far and on a presentation of the activities that are planned for the coming period.

Stefano Dotto, Head of Sector Connectivity, Climate and Environment from the Contracting Authority- the European Commission, Directorate General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) opened the meeting and highlighted the continuous efforts of the EU to support sustainable development, tackle issues of climate change and to protecting the environment.

WES Team Leader Professor Michael Scoullos, accentuated that in the past few months a lot of efforts of the WES projects have been put into adapting the activities to the new Covid-19 reality and that moving together towards a more sustainable Mediterranean is more important than ever. Furthermore, the progress of the project during the past year and the plans for the coming year were presented and discussed.

This Steering Committee brought together the WES Water and Environment Focal Points from the Partner Countries, the European Commission, institutional partners, representatives of WES Demonstration projects as well as a number of regional organisations and the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and the Mediterranean Action Plan/UN Environment. The meeting was chaired by Sylvie Fontaine, Task Manager at DG NEAR.

The EU-funded Water and Environment Support project in the ENI Southern Neighbourhood region aims at protecting the environment and improving the management of scarce water resources in the Mediterranean. It tackles problems related to pollution prevention and water use efficiency. The four-year project was launched in May 2019 and on 23 November 2020, the workplan up to October 2021 was approved by the Steering Committee.