PERSEUS organised its first training activity for the promotion and application of EU Marine Environmental Policy Framework in the Black Sea Countries. The 5-day training course took place during the week 4-8 June 2012, on the island of Chios, Greece, in collaboration with the ‘Maria Tsakos’ Foundation.

The training course was organised under the auspices and with the support of the General Secretariat of Research and Technology of the Hellenic Republic (GSRT), which holds the Coordinator role for the Working Group on Cooperation in Science and Technology in the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) until the end of June 2012.

This course is the first of a two-part course that aims to contribute to establishing common understanding and joint approaches to ensure coherence and consistency throughout the Black Sea countries, in order to facilitate the basin-wide promotion of the MSFD principles and objectives.

During this first course, the history and development of Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) was introduced and discussed both in terms of policy and science. The hands–on experience of applying these directives in European countries was shared with the participants, who were asked to provide a conceptual gap analysis on the development and application of these Directives in their own countries. The progress on results from the PERSEUS project was also presented during the event.

Twenty-four scientists from the Black Sea countries participated in the course. The Lecturers were well-known experts from different fields of marine science and known for their contribution in the application of the Water Framework Directive and Marine Strategy Framework Directive.
The second part of the course is scheduled for spring 2013, in Turkey, under the auspices and support of TUBITAK.

Photos and relevant documents will follow shortly.