18th Meeting of the Mediterranean Commission on Sustainable Development

Let me welcome you all on behalf of the United Nations Family in Montenegro. For over 10 years, our UN Team has been working as One – in so called Delivering as One modality – and it is my great pleasure as the UN Resident Coordinator to support this initiative driven by our sister agency – United Nations Environment. Ongoing UN reform at the country level, encompassed by reinvigorated UN Resident Coordinator system, provides even greater support and guidance to agencies bringing their specific expertise to the field.  

As reflected in the Environmental Sustainability Result Area of our UN strategic work in the country, the value which the United Nations Environment brings to the team is critical for environmental initiatives such as Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development. Prevention of degradation of biodiversity of the Mediterranean is, no doubt, an extremely important issue for number of reasons including economic, social and environmental. For this cause, Barcelona Convention gathers 22 parties surrounding this unique eco-system in an exemplary case of how the multilateralism works around critical issues.

Like any other climate action, the Barcelona Convention is in its heart a transformative action. It provides an institutional framework for Mediterranean Governments to assess and control pollution, as well as to formulate their national marine environmental policies. On the other side, the governments are expected to improve their capacities to prevent marine environmental degradation.

Montenegro has done a lot in this area, especially through embedding key environmental principles into the National Strategy for Sustainable Development by 2030. By doing so, Montenegro has set the ground and direction for country’s development along the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – a vision of better, more prosperous future for all adopted by all the UN member countries in 2015. Still, more can be done in this regard, especially when it comes to strengthening the institutional setup for the implementation of the National Strategy or for Sustainable Development. Active role of Montenegro in Barcelona Convention is an important step forward in this direction.

I hope you will enjoy your stay in this beautiful piece of Mediterranean and I wish you productive work next two days.

Thank you.