From Signature to Entry into Force: 1976–1981

After several years of preparatory work, a joint visit of the respective coastlines was organized in February 1975, with Michel Poniatowski, French Minister of State for the Interior, Mario Pedini, Italian Minister for Scientific Research and for Cultural and Environmental Heritage, and André Saint-Mleux, Minister of State of the Principality. On the same day, the delegation visited the IAEA Marine Radioactivity Laboratory at the Oceanographic Museum and was received at the Palace by Prince Rainier III for a meeting, during which the principle proposed by Italy of an agreement based on the 1962 Franco-Swiss Convention on the protection of the waters of Lake Geneva was adopted.

The RAMOGE International Cooperation Agreement “on the protection of Mediterranean coastal waters” was officially signed the following year, on May 10, 1976, in Monaco, by these three ministers. In a highly symbolic gesture, the text was signed in the Throne Room of the Palace, the only recorded instance in the contemporary history of the Principality for an agreement of this kind, and the first of its kind in the Mediterranean. It came one year after the creation of the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) and only a few months after the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea, both initiated under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), established in 1972 following the Stockholm Conference. Contrary to the initial concept of the RAMOGE project, the area established was larger and extended from Hyères to Genoa.

Ratification by the three countries was completed in 1980, and the Agreement entered into force on January 1, 1981. The first meeting of the RAMOGE Commission, the decision-making body bringing together the three delegations, was held in 1982 and has taken place within the Ministry of State of Monaco every year since. A technical committee, composed of experts, provides the scientific support for the Agreement, with working groups progressively forming its backbone and ensuring the monitoring of all identified issues. Finally, a permanent secretariat, based in Monaco, initially within the CSM, coordinates the Agreement’s activities. These bodies bring together States, local authorities, scientific research institutes, and sea users.

Quote:

– “1976 will be year one for the Mediterranean.”
André Fosset, French Minister for Quality of Life, at the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea, 1975.

– “The Mediterranean is suffocating […]. The role of Cousteau and Bombard is to alert public opinion. If they had not proclaimed ‘The Mediterranean is dying,’ no one would have paid attention […]. Because they sounded the alarm so forcefully, agreements are now being concluded […]. Even before this convention was signed, we tried to organize ourselves. We thus agreed that all hospitals in the region should be equipped with treatment plants.”
Alain Vatrican, Le Point, May 10, 1976.

– « Pace nel Mediterraneo significa la smilitarizzazione di questo mare […], la stipulazione di accordi internazionali, una severa disciplina degli scarichi dalle navi, dalle città, dalle industrie, una pianificazione dell’uso delle coste.
Altrimenti i costosi sforzi affrontati da alcune città e paesi per evitare l’inquinamento del Mediterraneo saranno resi vani se altre città, paesi, industrie lasciano finire nel mare […] i metalli tossici, gli acidi, gli escrementi, i veicoli d’infezioni e di epidemie » (“Peace in the Mediterranean means the demilitarization of this sea […], the conclusion of international agreements, strict control of discharges from ships, cities and industries, as well as planning for the use of coastal areas. Otherwise, the costly efforts undertaken by certain cities and countries to prevent pollution will be in vain if others continue to release into the sea […] toxic metals, acids, sewage, and agents of infection and epidemics.”
Epoca, June 2, 1976, Giorgio Nebbia, Professor of Ecology at the University of Bari.