New offices for Mediterranean?s REMPEC

The Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea (REMPEC) has become a role model for other centres for its work in combating and preventing pollution from ships, International Maritime Organization (IMO) Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos said, as REMPEC?s new offices on the Valletta waterfront, in Malta, were inaugurated by the Prime Minister of Malta.

“The Centre has, today, the dual responsibility not only to combat but also to prevent pollution from ships. This completes the network of protection for the Mediterranean Sea, encompassing, as it does, prevention, preparedness and response ? functions, which are highly appreciated by all the IMO Members and, indeed, the wider maritime community ? for, through the effectiveness of its mandate and work, REMPEC has become a model for the establishment of similar centres in other regions of the world,” Mitropoulos said.

“The modern and excellent facilities, here at ?Maritime House?, will greatly facilitate the Centre?s work in preventing and mitigating marine pollution in the Mediterranean,” Mitropoulos added. “The coordinating role it played in the response to the Lebanese oil spill of 2006; its implementation role in several EU-funded programmes, including the MEDA and SAFEMED Projects; and its recent initiative on garbage discharge requirements demonstrate the importance and significance of the Centre for a region that possesses major shipping and maritime assets in general, while also being characterized by a unique ecological nature not surprisingly generating deep scientific interest,” he said. The refurbished building, once the “Merchant Seafarers? Memorial Building”, until recently housed the Malta Maritime Authority.

Prime Minister Gonzi praised REMPEC’s “invaluable work in warding off pollution” and “in helping the coastal countries to equip themselves to deal with a threat of pollution in every way, from monitoring to actually combating its occurrence”.

Referring to growing concern about climate change, Gonzi said that “the direst threat to us would be that against which REMPEC was constituted to guard. A polluted Mediterranean Sea would be as deadly a recipe for Malta?s prosperity, as a sea that was too warm for both fish and human beings.”

REMPEC was established in Malta in 1976 as the Regional Oil Combating Centre (ROCC) and until last December operated from offices situated on Manoel Island. It became known as REMPEC in 1989, following the extension of its mandate to include hazardous substances other than oil and it has, since, contributed significantly to the development and strengthening of the capacities of the Mediterranean States to deal with marine pollution incidents. REMPEC is operated under, and financed by, the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention, within the framework of the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) of the Regional Seas Programme of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and is administered and technically back-stopped by IMO through an Agreement with UNEP.