Brussels, 11/04/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have decided to ensure greater coordination of their environmental protection work in the Mediterranean, planning to allocate more than €2.1 billion to this by 2010 to fund an initial phase of 44 projects in seven of the nine EU partner countries on the Southern Mediterranean (all bar Algeria and the Lebanon but these two countries may join the programme at any time). The announcement was made a few months ahead of the EU 'Summit' for the Mediterranean, on 13 July 2008, an initiative of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and ideas submitted at the Summit will be submitted to the French authorities, explained Soledad Blanco, Director of DG Environment at the European Commission. Together with Philippe de Fontaine Vive, vice-president of the EIB, Blanco recently presented the conclusions of a study into potential investment to clean up a number of sensitive areas of the Mediterranean. This investment programme has been given the name 'MeHSIP'. It aims to involve all players involved in the preservation of the Mediterranean environment, around whose coasts some 143 million people live. Blanco stressed the importance and priority awarded by the Commission to cooperation in this domain, highlighting the utility of coordinating all work in this connection, from EU programmes to work by the member states and regional and international efforts. To this, the president of the EIB added the tourists, some 175 million a year, who come to spend their holidays on the shores of a sea suffering from urban pollution and being the dumping ground for sewage, waste and industrial pollution. Tourism is vital for EU and Mediterranean countries and is itself a contributor to the good health of the Mediterranean. This study goes into more detail on the objectives already identified under programmes drawn up a long time ago (well before the French environment plans, Ed.), noted Blanco, adding that in November 2006, a timetable was set for implement the '2020 Horizon' initiative involving synergy with the EIB and other providers of funds. Its budget may be used to help beneficiary countries 'soften' the loan criteria for environmental projects. The environment is the only domain where subsidies to loans are allowed under EU mechanisms, explained de Fontaine Vive. He said the EIB was planning to mobilise all available resources, its own resources as a EuroMed development bank (through the FEMIP fund), budget resources and funding from other donors, like people looking for outlets in which to invest ever increasing oil revenues. The latter, including Gulf States (although they are not directly concerned by the Mediterranean) would be able to take advantage of investment in the Mediterranean to gain know-how they could use to clean up their own rivers, lakes and coasts. The EIB vice-president did not rule out that implementing the MeHSIP programme might lead to funding requirements of more than the €2.1 bn suggested by the study unveiled on Thursday. (F.B.)