The Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea (REMPEC) recently organised a regional workshop on the implementation of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL).
MARPOL is the main international convention, adopted under the aegis of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), concerning the prevention of pollution of the marine environment by ships. It includes regulations aimed at preventing and minimising pollution from ships – both accidentally and as a result of routine operations – and includes six technical annexes.
The workshop’s main objective was to familiarise senior government officials from Mediterranean countries with the MARPOL Convention, and in particular Annexes II and III, to ensure their correct implementation. Annex II relates to regulations for the control of pollution by noxious liquid substances in bulk, and Annex III regulates the prevention of pollution by harmful substances carried by sea in packaged form.
Held within the framework of the EU-funded MEDA Regional Transport Project Euromed Cooperation on Maritime Safety and Prevention of Pollution from Ships – SafeMed II, which is being implemented by REMPEC in 10 Euromed Mediterranean partners, this regional workshop also formed part of REMPEC’s programme of activities 2010-2011 as approved by the 16th Ordinary Meeting of the contracting parties to the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean Sea.
The four speakers were Marja C Tiemens-Idzinga, who has extensive experience and knowledge on the application of MARPOL Annexes II and III; Ken McDonald who is a Technical Officer at IMO’s Marine Environmental Division; Thomas Hoefer, a senior expert from Germany and a member of the UN Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environ-mental Protection (GESAMP) Working Group on the Evaluation of the Hazards of Harmful Substances Carried by Ships and Alex Gerson, a Flag and Port State Inspector from Israel.
Participants hailed from 18 contracting parties to the Barcelona Convention, namely Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Montenegro, Slovenia, Spain, Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey. Together with Jordan, the last eight mentioned are also SafeMed
beneficiaries.
REMPEC director Frederic Hebert said that the regional workshop highlighted the degree of cooperation between the EU-funded SafeMed II Project being implemented by REMPEC and the Centre’s programme of activities. “Most of SafeMed’s activities are within the scope of the Regional Strategy for Prevention of and Response to Marine Pollution from Ships adopted by the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention. In this respect, when possible, and in order to provide a holistic regional dimension, some project activities such as this workshop, were extended to other Contracting Parties that are not directly benefiting from the SafeMed Project,” said Mr Hebert.
The European Commission recently decided to extend some of the activities of the SafeMed II Project to four Western Balkan countries that are part of the Union for the Mediterranean as well as parties to the Barcelona Convention, and to also further stimulate cooperation around the entire Mediterranean basin.
More information about the workshop is available at www.rempec.org and www.safemedproject.org