At the 12th meeting of the Parties the Contracting Parties of the Barcelona Convention decided to prepare a Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development (MSSD). The MSSD is a framework strategy which aims to adapt international commitments to regional conditions, to guide national sustainable development strategies and to initiate a dynamic partnership amongst countries party to the Convention. The Strategy aims to promote sustainable development which includes progress in economic, social and environmental areas as well as in governance.
The purpose of this report is to evaluate the work done so far and to provide the members of the Mediterranean Commission for Sustainable Development (MCSD) and the Contracting Parties with an Assessment Document showing the level of implementation of the MSSD since 2005 and ways to improve it and update it with a particular focus on environment/development issues.
In particular the project aims to:

• Suggest amendments of the MSSD on the basis of the changes in the context in which the MSSD operates and of the problems related to the MSSD implementation over the period 2005 - 2010;
• Suggest new emerging priorities which should be incorporated in the revised version of the MSSD (aim 2); and
• Suggest actions to improve the implementation of the MSSD.

Nicola Cantore, Clive George, Dirk Willem te Velde