The meeting was attended by participants from 20 members of GFCM and observers. The Consultation discussed two working documents presented by the Secretariat. The first was the synthesis of the national reports prepared by the countries, and the second was a proposal for the elements to be considered for the preparation of action plans at national and regional levels. Three Working Groups were created. The Working Group evaluated the document provided by the Secretariat and improved the list of proposed activities. These were also ranked in order of priority at national and regional level and general mechanisms for their implementation were also proposed. The Consultation recommended that the GFCM be the umbrella institution for implementation of the programme of activities identified by the Working Groups.

This meeting reviewed the status of aquaculture in the Mediterranean region and the activities of the networks linked to the Committee. It acknowledged the need to strengthen collaboration with relevant national and regional organisations, and that regular aquaculture reports covering production and marketing trends be undertaken and published. Budgetary issues were also discussed.

This publication contains the report of an expert meeting, held in Rome in December 2005, to discuss the re-establishment of the Environment and Aquaculture in the Mediterranean (EAM) Network and to identify short and medium-term activities. The experts suggested that EAM be re-established as a subsidiary body of GFCM-CAQ (General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean - Committee on Aquaculture) and the restructured EAM would work through four working groups.

The meeting was attended by six experts from the Committee on Aquaculture (CAQ) and by the consultant recruited for undertaking the evaluation. Initially only an external evaluation of the SIPAM network (Information System for the Promotion of Aquaculture in the Mediterranean) was recommended; subsequently, the call for a full external evaluation of CAQ, including all of its Networks, since its inception was requested by the Commission, in view of the forthcoming entry into force of the GFCM autonomous budget. The Meeting of Experts reviewed and summarized major achievements of CAQ and its networks.--Publisher's description.