Mediterranean Programme - [10/22/2007]

Greater international involvement in the environmental challenge in the Mediterranean

Oriol Costa presented a research study at the CIDOB Foundation that examined the different frameworks of international cooperation on environmental issues within the Mediterranean region. Costa, who is a guest researcher at the Free University of Berlin and a Lecturer in International Relations at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) took part in a debate workshop which also featured participation from Rafael Grasa, Lecturer in International Relations at the UAB, and Louis Lemkow, Director of ICTA at the UAB.

Costa claimed that a convergence is taking place between the cooperation system linked with the United Nations (the Barcelona Process, in existence since 1975) and the cooperation framework led by the European Union (the environmental dimension of the Barcelona Process, launched in 1995).

In the study, which combines theoretical and conceptual contributions from both International Relations and Environmental Sciences, different motives are identified that may explain the converging evolution of the two environmental cooperation frameworks in the Mediterranean region. Costa analysed the current situation in terms of aspects such as international regimes, division of work and power games.

The professor also pointed out that on a conceptual level of priorities, the target of cleaning up the Mediterranean Sea by the year 2020 reflects a return to pre-1975 guidelines. Meanwhile, the participants agreed that what may lie behind the attempt to emphasise these issues on the Euro-Mediterranean agenda is the intention of justifying the existence of the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation framework itself.Rafael Grasa went on to focus on aspects of a methodological and theoretical nature, as well as offering a few suggestions on how to enrich the research study. These included the factor of French foreign policy, the existence (or non-existence) of epistemic communities and the need to compare the situation in the Mediterranean with other realities such as the Baltic.

Meanwhile, Louis Lemkow suggested the need to highlight the importance of environmental and social processes, focusing on the links between the environment, development and inequalities. He also noted that some cooperation frameworks have erred on the side of excessive politicisation, while in others the political component has not been stressed sufficiently.

After the debate was opened up to the audience, discussion turned to issues such as which framework offers more incentives to carrying out reforms on a legislative level that are required by the situation of environmental degradation. Furthermore, the debate considered what can be done in Catalonia and Spain to generate debate and new ideas in the field, as well as the need for cooperation to take place on multiple levels, and for it to be provided with suitable coherent cooperation frameworks.