The Closing Conference of the EU funded “Water and Environment Support (WES) in the ENI Neighbourhood South Region” project was held on the 8th of October 2024, in Athens, Greece. During the meeting, the results and impact of this significant regional 5,5 year project (2019-2024), were presented and discussed.

More than 100 demand driven comprehensive WES Activities were organised at regional and national level, providing technical assistance to the 8 WES Partner Countries (PCs) from North Africa and the Middle East, through interventions, including: Trainings, Study Visits to European & Southern Mediterranean countries, Peer-to-Peer Exchanges, Workshops, Webinars, Consultation Meetings, in which some 2.200 trainees participated. Action plans, Policy Documents, Roadmaps, Technical Guidelines were produced, promoted and disseminated by the WES Team of Experts, in close cooperation with national Focal Points (FPs), and the EU Delegations.

The 100 WES activities addressed water scarcity and environmental pollution through hundreds of case studies and good practices promoting appropriate treatment and reuse of wastewater; water accounting; reduction of non-revenue water; retaining storm waters and recharging aquifers; optimizing water use in agricultural irrigation; applying innovative circular economy business models; monitoring and mitigating marine litter; drastically reducing single use plastics and much more.

The many technical achievements of WES were supported with the parallel promotion of institutional changes to enable private-public partnerships, green finance, applying the principles of the Aarhus Convention and of Education for Sustainable Development programmes. The WES campaign encouraging all types of stakeholders to become “Champions” in reducing plastic pollution in the Mediterranean, was completed and an Award Ceremony also took place during the Closing Conference.

The Conference brought together 60 stakeholders from 16 countries: WES Focal Points (PCs Ministries of Water and of Environment), European Commission Officials from the DGs for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations and of the Environment, the Institutional Partners of the Project, namely the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), and the United Nations Environment Programme/Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP MAP), as well as representatives of International Institutions, the Private sector and NGOs of the MENA countries.