As part of Croatia’s presidency of the MED 9 group, the MED 9 Meeting of Environment Ministers will take place tomorrow, 19 May 2026, in Šibenik. The meeting will be chaired by the Minister of Environment and Green Transition, Marija Vučković.
The MED 9 group brings together nine Mediterranean Member States of the European Union: Spain, France, Italy, Malta, Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Slovenia, and Croatia. This year’s Croatian presidency is being held under the slogan “For a Safer, More Sustainable and More Resilient Mediterranean.”
In addition to Minister Marija Vučković and the Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Environment, Eric Mamer, the meeting will be attended by representatives of all MED 9 Member States, as well as experts in water management and environmental protection.
The discussions will focus on strengthening the resilience of public water supply systems in Mediterranean countries. Particular emphasis will be placed on reducing the risk of water shortages, decreasing losses in distribution networks, and implementing digital solutions for more precise measurement, consumption forecasting, and faster operational response in crisis situations.
During the same day, discussions are also planned on the protection of the marine environment and strengthening the resilience of Mediterranean ecosystems. Special attention will be given to the connection between river basins and the sea through an integrated “source-to-sea” approach, including the analysis of key pressures originating from inland areas that affect coastal and marine environments, as well as measures aimed at reducing them.
As part of the MED 9 programme, the Josip Juraj Strossmayer Water Institute and Innovamare will jointly present a demonstration of an integrated microplastics monitoring system developed in the Republic of Croatia. The Institute will present the TinyTrap system, a device designed for representative sampling of large volumes of water and microplastics monitoring with high standards of data quality control, while Innovamare will present the autonomous surface vessel Faust V and an underwater drone (ROV) used for data collection and monitoring of the marine environment under real conditions. The demonstration will integrate autonomous technologies, field sampling, and laboratory analytics into a single operational framework based on the “source-to-sea” approach.
Particular emphasis will be placed on the fact that the presented solutions are the result of Croatian expertise and cooperation between the scientific, public, and innovation sectors.
Hosting the meeting in Šibenik confirms Croatia’s importance in the Mediterranean dialogue on environmental policies and contributes to strengthening cooperation among MED 9 Member States in the fields of climate resilience, water resource management, and marine ecosystem protection.
