Informal discussions are still underway on the identification of a transboundary marine protected area in international waters between Italy, Malta and Tunisia, a spokesperson for Environment Minister Miriam Dalli has told MaltaToday.
Italy’s Maritime Spatial Plan directly refers to the identification of a marine protected area between Italy, Malta and Tunisia in the Strait of Sicily as already proposed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2011.
The recently published Italian report, issued for public consultation in neighbouring Malta as required by EU law, briefly refers to the creation of the MPA as an example of “transnational cooperation” in the region.
The report refers to the need to “coordinate, strengthen and extend the tools for the protection of marine ecosystems” through the identification of such MPAs, in this case to protect deep-sea ecosystems, between Italy and Greece in the Ionian Sea.
