17 - 23 February 2000

Environmental cooperation between Malta and Tunisia

by a staff reporter

Malta and Tunisia have agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the field of the environment. A joint commission meeting held for the first time in Malta in the past three days has agreed on a programme of action in the various aspects of the environment which will be carried out during this year.

The Tunisian delegation which took part in these meetings was led by the Tunisian Ambassador to Malta Abdessalem Hetira and also included Mahmoud Ouanes from the Ministry of the Environment and Land Management, Aziza Hetira from the National Agency for Renewable Energy and Mounir Ferchichi from the National Agency for Environment Protection.

The Maltese Ministry for the Environment was represented by Paul Mifsud, permanent secretary, who chaired the meetings of the Commission, Vincent Gauci, acting director of the Environment Protection Department and Helga Zahra, policy coordinator at the ministry.

The joint commission was set up pursuant to the Agreement for Cooperation in the Field of the Environment signed between the two countries in 1993. At a meeting which was held in October last year between the Maltese Minister for the Environment, Dr Francis Zammit Dimech, and his Tunisian counterpart, Faiza Kefi, on the occasion of the ministerial meeting of the contracting parties to the Barcelona Convention, it was agreed that the two sides should take the initiative to put into effect the provisions of the agreement for cooperation in the environmental field. It was also agreed that as a first step in the beginning of the new year they would set up the joint commission to prepare the programme of action. The joint commission will hold annual meetings alternately in Malta and Tunisia.

As a result of the meetings of the joint commission, it was agreed that during this year there will be an exchange of information and documentation regarding environmental institutions in the respective countries, the exchange of experts in the field of waste management, training for officials from both countries in the respective countries, environmental institutions, the encouragement of the participation of the private sector in commercial initiatives in areas connected with the environment, the participation of officials from both countries in pollution control exercises and closer cooperation in international fora.

The agreed minutes of the meetings of the joint commission were signed today by Mahmoud Ouanes for the Tunisian Ministry for the Environment and by Paul Mifsud for the Maltese Ministry for the Environment.