Ways to achieve sustainability for the Mediterranean and the Black sea Environment. Focus is needed at regional level, especially in the area of the Central and Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea, taking into account their unique contrasts and similarities as an interconnected large area.

Actions 1. Develop National Sustainability Programmes in the participating countries. Existing projects in both regions should be clustered in order to correlate the actions towards common approaches. 2. Encourage participation in consortia within FP6 activities in different topics and tools. Topics like the thematic areas of the Conference are of primary importance.

Actions./… 3. Prepare for an EU MEBS (EU Mediterranean and Black Sea) Platform to take stock of existing and current activities also for future FP6 participation in a more systematic way, including the necessary information regarding countries of the E. Med and Black Sea (EU Member States, Candidate countries and NIS countries). This could also envisage a series of events as a follow up of the current conference annually in different locations around the eastern Med and the Black Sea.

4. Black Sea and Eastern Med are ideal experimental areas for sustainability. The above-mentioned platform should also have political “mandate” to deliver sound science for complementary sustainability strategies in the countries of this region. The riparian countries should actively support the development of the platform and invest on the outcome. Actions./…

5. The 8 th priority of the FP6 is also of extreme mid and long term importance for candidate countries and even NIS countries. Member States could help to realize their participation in relevant issues. 6. The mobility of scientists within and between the EU Member States and candidate and NIS countries using the instruments of FP6 should be encouraged. It is an indispensable element for future cooperation and networking. Actions