Abstract
International cooperation is a must to achieve the goal of sustainable development, since only through cross border actions’ complex issues like environmental degradation can be faced. Supranational initiatives and shared objectives are the only path for getting a durable and effective green strategy, which transcends boundaries or governments and fosters a common effort for sustainability through networking. The European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) aims at reinforcing cooperation between the European Union (EU) and partner countries’ regions placed along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. To this extent, MESP (Managing the Environmental Sustainability of Ports for a durable development) can be considered as a typical cross border cooperation project, willing to create a sustainable environmental management of port in northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean basin. This has been achieved through the development of specific guidelines towards environmental sustainability and the collection of common tools, methodologies, good practices and innovations focused on pollution reduction that can be replicated in Mediterranean ports and further. This was possible through the creation of a strong cooperation network and long-lasting collaborations among partners and stakeholders such as harbour cities, port authorities, universities, research centres and scientific skills.
Highlights
In order to ensure a better quality of life for current and future generations, the European Union (EU) developed the Sustainable Development Strategy (EU SDS) as the overarching policy framework for all Union policies and strategies
A key operational tool for sustainable marine governance is certainly represented by Marine Spatial Planning [5] in order to implement the Ecosystem-Based Management approach (EBM) [6,7,8], provided by EU 2007 Integrated Maritime Policy (IMP) [9,10] and EU 2008 Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) objectives [11]
At the end of the project, looking back at three years of work, several best practices and lessons learnt during the implementation of the activities can be identified
Summary
In order to ensure a better quality of life for current and future generations, the EU developed the Sustainable Development Strategy (EU SDS) as the overarching policy framework for all Union policies and strategies. A key operational tool for sustainable marine governance is certainly represented by Marine Spatial Planning [5] in order to implement the Ecosystem-Based Management approach (EBM) [6,7,8], provided by EU 2007 Integrated Maritime Policy (IMP) [9,10] and EU 2008 Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) objectives [11] To this extent, in order for Member States to adequately contribute to this key strategy, according to their responsibilities and capabilities, EU promotes international programmes as the main tool to develop best practices to be locally applied [12,13]. The communication plan and the dissemination initiatives realized [16]; the innovation characterizing the project and the actions to be considered as good practices to be replicated; the right way to capitalize the project, the resulted benefits and the Road map that could be drawn for future projects
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