The meeting was co-chaired by the Portuguese Ministry of Environment and Climate Action, currently assuming the European Secretariat of the Platform and the Ministry of Water Resources of China.
Both Mr. Li Ge, Deputy Director General, the Department of International Cooperation, Science and Technology, MWR, P.R.China, and Mrs. Alexandra Carvalho, Secretary General, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Action, Portugal, were touching upon the challenges that CEWP was facing last and this year and considering this meeting as the real indicator that the Platform and the way it is performing are adapted to the news work tools.
From the traditional presentations of each Lot’s past and future activities (management and restoration, rural water, urban water, water and energy, PI coordination, business, Funding Alignment, and Climate Change), we could conclude that the planning is adapted to the new conditions, showing different ways to face the adverse effects of the recent Covid19 pandemic and maintaining the global objectives with an adapted calendar.
The European Secretariat was introducing some considerations about the state of the art, in terms of the HLDC, taking into consideration the discussions established on the last EU Coordination Meeting and on the bilateral talks with the Chinese co-Secretariat (consult the presentation here). The proposal, for now, is to plan the 9th HLDC for the second half of 2022, envisaging to be an in-site meeting and profiting the possibility of benefiting of the PI outputs and commemorating the 10th CEWP’s anniversary. Both co-Secretariats will continue the dialogue to evaluate the situation, and if needed to envisage the organization of an extraordinary JSC meeting at the end of 2021.
The European Secretariat also informed participants about the procedure launched to choose the next European Member State to assume the responsibility of the CEWP European co-Secretariat (consult the presentation here). This launch was on the 21st May, and the candidatures are accepted till July the 3rd. After internal European procedures, a European proposal will be ready on September the 17th.