53rd meeting of the RAMOGE Commission

©DR

The 53^rd meeting of the RAMOGE Commission* took place on Tuesday 19 January. Due to the health measures in place, the meeting was held in a hybrid format, with some people attending in person and others joining remotely. It was an opportunity for the French, Italian and Monegasque delegations to provide an update on the activities carried out during 2019 and 2020.

In the current challenging circumstances, RAMOGE has proved to be resilient, continuing with numerous actions including:

Monitoring the conservation status of iconic Mediterranean species (brown meagre, grouper, noble pen shell, ribbed Mediterranean limpet, cystoseira);
Monitoring the problem posed by the microscopic algae Ostreopsis;
Applying the results of the RAMOGE deep-sea exploration campaigns;
Launching a study on sustainable management of yachting and cruising;
Producing a guide to preventing marine waste, aimed at local communities in the RAMOGE zone;
Continuing with the RAMOGEPOL pollution control exercises and the OSCAR-MED initiatives to monitor illegal dumping in the Mediterranean;
Submitting a proposal on banning the dumping of paraffin in the Mediterranean to the International Maritime Organization;
· Organising the RAMOGE “Man and the Sea” photo competition.

Members of the Commission also agreed the programme of work for the period 2021–2022. In addition to continuing with the majority of the above activities, some new actions are planned:

Creating a RAMOGE certification aimed at promoting eco-friendly yachting;
Developing synergies with other sub-regional agreements that work to combat pollution at sea (LION Plan and the Algeria/Morocco/Tunisia agreement);
Producing educational packs to raise awareness among upper secondary school pupils about the conservation of deep-sea environments, based on the data and resources collected during the RAMOGE exploration campaigns.

Following the meeting, Mr Giuseppe Italiano, the President of the Commission, passed the presidency over to Ms Isabelle Rosabrunetto, Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and Head of the Monegasque Delegation, who will hold it for the next two-year period. In a similar vein, Ms Tiziana Chieruzzi of the Italian delegation took over from Mr Benoît Rodrigues of the French delegation as President of the Technical Committee.

Let us hope that 2021–2022 will see increasingly effective cooperation to better protect the Mediterranean.

*: International cooperation agreement to preserve the coastline and marine environment between France, Monaco and Italy, covering the zone between Marseille and La Spezia.