At the invitation of the Government of Montenegro, the MCSD will convene in Budva on 11-13 June 2019 with the participation of delegates of the 22 Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention and 18 representatives of 6 stakeholder groups, including local authorities, socio-economic actors, civil society/NGOs, intergovernmental organisations, scientists and Parliamentarians.

The MCSD, which provides advice to the Contracting Parties on the integration of environmental issues in sustainable development policies, will review progress achieved in the implementation of the Mediterranean Strategy on Sustainable Development at a time when preparations for the 21st Ordinary Meeting of the Contracting Parties (Naples, Italy, 2-5 December 2019) are in full swing. Participants will also examine, inter alia, assessment studies on the interaction between Environment and Development (2019 Report on the State of the Environment and Development / SoED 2019 and MED2050 Foresight Study).

The Sustainable Development Goals will be high on the agenda with a session focusing on the Mediterranean transition towards an inclusive Blue Economy and a roundtable on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The roundtable will bring together representatives of the three UN Regional Commissions covering the Mediterranean basin (UNECA, UNECE and UN-ESCWA) and a member of the Independent Group of Scientists that authored the 2019 Global Sustainable Development Report to be presented at the High-Level SDG Summit (New York, September 2019).