The ENPI Horizon 2020 Capacity Building/Mediterranean Environment Programme to de-pollute the Mediterranean by the year 2020 (ENPI H2020 CB/MEP)

The paper explains the content, structure, activities and contribution of the capacity building component of the Horizon 2020 Initiative, a major undertaking supported by the EU Neighbourhood policy instrument. The Mediterranean environment is one of the richest and at the same time most vulnerable in the world. A staggering 80% of its pollution comes from land based sources: municipal waste, urban waste and water, and industrial emissions. In 2006, the European Mediterranean Environment Ministers meeting in Cairo committed themselves to a targeted de-pollution of the Mediterranean Sea by 2020, known as the “Horizon 2020 Initiative”. Within this framework, the Horizon 2020 Capacity Building/Mediterranean Environment Programme (H2020 CB/MEP) is one of its three operational components (the other two include the investments for pollution reduction infrastructures and pollution monitoring). It aims at supporting the implementation of the Horizon 2020 Initiative Road Map and Work Plan through a large number (~140) of capacity building and awareness raising activities, while strengthening institutions on environmental mainstreaming and H2020 priority areas. Environmental mainstreaming acts as an umbrella under which the three H2020 priorities are developed horizontally, cross cutting all capacity building activities so as to facilitate and create the enabling environment for the proper implementation, not only of the capacity building component of H2020 but also of the entire Initiative. It is expected that the H2020 CB/MEP will provide by the end of 2012 capacity building for an average of 200–300 persons per country, which means about 3500 individuals in the entire region.