Regional Expert Meeting Med NOx ECA

The Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea (REMPEC) is organising the Regional Expert Meeting on the Possible Designation of the Mediterranean, as a whole, as a Nitrogen Oxides Emission Control Area (Med NOx ECA), in Kalkara, Malta from 7 to 8 October 2026.  The Meeting will be held back-to-back with the High-Level Meeting to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of REMPEC, being held on 6 October 2026.

The Meeting is being organised by REMPEC pursuant to the Programme of Work and Budget for 2026-2027 of the Mediterranean Action Plan of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP/MAP), adopted by the Twenty Fourth Ordinary Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean (“the Barcelona Convention”) and its Protocols (COP 24), which was convened in Cairo, Egypt, in December 2025. It is financed by the Integrated Technical Cooperation Programme (ITCP) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the Mediterranean Trust Fund (MTF). 

COP 24 agreed to include the following deliverable in the UNEP/MAP Programme of Work and Budget for 2026-2027: 

1.4.2.c)                 Technical and Feasibility Study to examine the possibility of designating the Med NO_X ECA under MARPOL Annex VI prepared under the guidance of the NO_X ECA Technical Committee of Experts (NECA TCE); as well as related roadmap prepared and validated by the relevant bodies with a view to submission to COP25. 

The Technical and Feasibility Study to assess the relevant existing and ongoing studies, as well as to examine the possible designation of the Mediterranean Sea, as a whole, as an Emission Control Area for Nitrogen Oxides, pursuant to MARPOL Annex VI, including health and socio-economic impacts on the Mediterranean region and the individual Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention, hereinafter referred to as the Final draft Technical and Feasibility Study, was prepared by REMPEC, in close consultation with the NECA TCE. Various consultations were undertaken during 2025, including during the Regional Expert Meeting, held in November 2025, which led to the validation and approval of the Final draft Technical and Feasibility Study, in January 2026 by the NECA TCE.

The Regional Experts Meeting held in November 2025, also recommended that REMPEC shall submit a Note, including the draft IMO MEPC Submission and the draft Roadmap, to the Seventeenth Meeting of the Focal Points of REMPEC, to be tentatively held in May 2027.

 In this context, the principal objectives of the Meeting will be: 

1. to raise awareness on MARPOL Annex VI, as well as to provide for a greater understanding and appreciation of the requirements for implementation and enforcement of the Med NO_X ECA, in order to be able to lead Governments’ efforts towards ratification and more effective implementation, compliance and enforcement, both as a flag State and as a port State, including the sharing of experience and lessons learned from the designation of other similar ECAs, over the first day of the Meeting; and
2. to discuss the draft IMO MEPC Submission, prepared by REMPEC, a copy of which was circulated to the NECA TCE on 15 June 2026, over the last day of the Meeting, with a view to finalisation and onward transmission to the Seventeenth Meeting of the Focal Points of REMPEC.

The target audience for the Meeting is the Government officials responsible for the ratification, implementation and enforcement of MARPOL Annex VI.

WORKING DOCUMENTS - DOCUMENTS DE TRAVAIL