• REMPEC’S OPENING, 3 October 2022 : Secretary General of the IMO Kitack Lim and the Prime Minister Roberto Abela renewed their support in the prevention and response of marine pollution in the Mediterranean.

REMPEC, is critical for the Mediterranean, with its mandate of preventing marine pollution in all its forms and facilitating the response when incidents occur. On October 3rd 2022, the opening ceremony was thus a good opportunity to highlight this new chapter in REMPEC’s history at the new premises in Floriana at Sa Maison.  

REMPEC has continued to evolve in order to meet the needs of the Contracting States to the Barcelona Convention, thanks to the support of its partners and funders. The inauguration of REMPEC's new premises provided by the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Project, was indeed an opportunity to renew the support provided by the Government of Malta as well as the International Maritime Organization (IMO) . Throughout its history achievements made by REMPEC have been made possible thanks to the longstanding and successful collaboration between the IMO and our steadfast partners, the Government of Malta and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Indeed, we were delighted to welcome on that occasion at REMPEC’s new premises the representatives of the supporting organizations and governments involved in REMPEC’s historical development notably Kitack Lim, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization, the Honourable Robert Abela, Prime Minister of Malta, the Honourable Dr. Aaron Farrugia Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects, and the the Honourable Ian Borg, Minister for Foreign and European Affairs and Trade.

Administrated by the IMO and part of the Mediterranean Action Plan of UNEP, the Centre was established in 1976 to assist the Mediterranean States in implementing the Emergency Protocol to the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea. The Centre’s mandate was firmly focused on assisting the Contracting Parties of the Barcelona Convention to prepare for and deal with oil spills caused by ships. Today, the Centre’s remit extends beyond dealing with accidental oil spills to a much broader mandate to work collaboratively with the Mediterranean States to prevent, control and combat marine pollution in all forms and has been recently strengthen thanks to the Mediterranean Strategy (2022-2031) based on a collective work in inter-actors in the Mediterranean.  

As mentioned, both by the Secretary General of the IMO Kitack Lim and the Prime Minister Roberto Abela, the maritime transport is a key sector in the Mediterranean to which it is important to address the right challenges, especially in terms of prevention and response to marine pollution to preserve human health living near the coasts and the fragile environment where resides a unique ecosystem in the world.  

Prime Minister Abela also mentioned the dynamism of REMPEC's activities in the past 45 years to support Mediterranean countries, and the key role the Centre plays. The implication and the support of the Maltese government was renewed while signing alongside IMO the revised Host Country Agreement, paving the way to a long term support to the marine activities done at REMPEC for the following years. 

More photos about this Event : REMPEC Flickr Official Account