The First Meeting of the Water Experts Group (WEG) of the Union for the Mediterranean was held on 7-8 September 2009, in Athens, Greece. It included representatives from Albania, Algeria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Latvia, Lebanon, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Palestine, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, the European Commission and the League of Arab States and was also attended by representatives of intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, including MIO-ECSDE.

This meeting focused on defining the Terms of Reference for the elaboration of a New Long-Term Strategy for Water in the Mediterranean (SWM), aimed to be adopted at the next UfM Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on Water to be hosted by Spain on 12-14 April 2010.

Furthermore, a Technical Drafting Group (TDG) in charge of elaborating the draft SWM text under the WEG political guidance was set up, composed of Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Spain, Syria, Croatia, the European Commission and the League of Arab States. The TDG will be chaired by Spain and the MED EUWI will provide administrative assistance to the process in coordination with the UfM Co-Chairs.

Work will be delivered according to a tight schedule up to the Spain Ministerial Conference in April 2010 and MIO-ECSDE will try and follow as much as possible.

The conclusions of the WEG are available in EN and FR at http://ufmsecretariat.org/environment-water/