General Assembly

of the Mediterranean Network of Basin Organizations (MENBO)

BEIRUT (LEBANON) - 6-9 October 2009

The next General Assembly of the Mediterranean Network of Basin Organizations (MENBO) will take place, at the invitation of the Lebanese Ministry of the Environment (Directorate General for Water and Electricity) and of the Litani Basin Authority:

From 6 to 9 Octobre 2009

Hotel 

IN BEIRUT – LEBANON 

There will be simultaneous translation into English and French.

Registration to the conference is free of charge.

The aim of INBO and MENBO is to enable the European and Mediterranean Basin Organizations to regularly and informally meet to exchange their practical experiences.

For the Member States of the European Union in particular, the implementation of the Water Framework Directive is entering now into an active and practical phase, directly involving the Basin Organizations or the “District Authorities”, and it is interesting to compare their approaches. Several tools developed within this framework could be of great usefulness for other Countries of the Mediterranean Basin, such as those already tested in several projects of the “joint process” or the European Water Initiative (Med-EUWI).

The Mediterranean basin is likely to be one of the areas in the world where the effect of climate change will be most significant on water resources.

The specific issues of water management in the Mediterranean basin will be at the core of our work and our meeting will be organized around three large current topics:

1.    Water and agriculture in the Management Plans      of the  Mediterranean basins, in relation with      EIC, co-organizer,

2.   Adaptation to climate change and water saving,

3.   Usefulness of the tools of the European Water Framework Directive in the Mediterranean Countries, non-members of the EU (Monitoring, Management Plans, Program of Measures, Financing…).

We will also discuss about the preparation of the Mediterranean Strategy for Water, following the Ministerial Conference of the Dead Sea in December 2008 and the meeting of the national experts in September in Athens, within the Union for the Mediterranean.

The participants will be exceptionally and officially received by His Excellency the President of the Republic of Lebanon.

A technical visit will be organized by the Litani Basin Authority in the Bekaa plain on Friday 9 October all day.

The meeting and technical visit are open to all INBO member organizations and observers, and to all the Mediterranean water administrations and organizations, interested in basin management and the implementation of the Framework Directive, as well as to the member and candidate countries of the European Union, of the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia, etc.

Any useful information, programs and proposed papers will be continuously available on the websites: www.inbo-news.org and www.remoc.org .

A meeting of INBO World Liaison Bureau will also take place at the same dates, at the hotel ..... in Beirut.

Unfortunately, we cannot take charge of your air travel expenses and hotel accommodation in Beirut.

For any further information, please contact riob2@wanadoo.fr or remoc1@remoc.org.