Almost 50 participants from 11 Mediterranean countries attended the MedPartnership “Regional Workshop on harmonizing the national legal and institutional framework with the ICZM Protocol”, held on 4-5 December in Zagreb, Croatia. The aim of the workshop was to assist countries in understanding the legal aspects of the ICZM Protocol; building capacities for the ratification of the Protocol and its transposition into the national laws; and in implementing the ICZM Protocol. The workshop consisted of three major blocks: an insight into the legal aspects of the ICZM Protocol, particularly of its key provisions including the analysis of these provisions in the face of the EU law; the experience of a national case study implemented in Croatia; and finally, a joint identification of stakeholders who could lead the implementation of the ICZM Protocol in the Mediterranean countries, or those who could obstruct it or make it more difficult.
Out of 11 countries represented at the workshop, 5 have not ratified the Protocol yet. As it has been agreed by the participants, the ratification enables all interested stakeholders to use the ICZM Protocol as a tool to push for a sustainable coastal development, but also as an instrument of adaptation to the climate variability and change. It was also pointed out that the ratification was only one step on the long path towards sustainable coastal development for which the efficient implementation of the ICZM Protocol is a crucial challenge.
The event was organised following sustainable criteria. This case study has been uploaded on the website of the Sustainable Events Toolkit (SET) for the Mediterranean developed by CP/RAC.
