The last few months have seen significant progress in advancing the four priority projects supported through the investment component of H2020 and MeHSIP-PPIF. The feasibility studies for the Al Ekaider (Jordan) and Lake Bizerte (Tunisia) projects have been completed allowing for pre-appraisal missions to be carried out by the EIB. The feasibility studies for the remaining two projects (Kafr El Sheikh in Egypt and Al Ghadir in Lebanon) are expected to be completed towards the end of 2012 allowing for their appraisal procedures to be launched in the first quarter of 2013.
Horizon 2020, in support of the Tunisian Ministry of Environment’s efforts to develop and implement a National Pact for Sustainable Development with Tunisian companies, “locomotives” of the economy, organized a workshop in Tunis, on 5-6 December 2012, which focused on the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
More than a 120 Members of Parliament, journalists and NGOs from 22 Mediterranean countries met in Athens, Greece on 22 and 23 October 2012 and pledged to accelerate their efforts towards a depolluted Mediterranean by the year 2020. The two-day workshop was organized within the framework of the Horizon 2020 Capacity Building/ Mediterranean Environment Programme and constituted the first international meeting of Mediterranean MPs after the events of the Arab Spring.
A ceremony took place at the Ministry of Environment on the 16th of October 2012 in celebration of the “Charter for the sustainable development of Lake Bizerte” which has been agreed by all of the stakeholders that play a role in its integrated management. Present at the ceremony were Mrs. Mamia El Banna, Minister of Environment, Mr. Mohamed Lamine Chakhari, Minister of Industry and Commerce, Mr. Belgac em Ayed, Director General of Infrastructure at the Ministry for Regional Development and Planning, Mr. Abderazak Ben Khlifa, Governor of Bizerte, Mrs. Nathalie Clémence of the European Investment Bank, M. Nick Marchesi, of MeHSIP-PPIF and Prof. Michael Scoullos, of H2020 CB/MEP.