The Working Group on ICZM Protocol met for the third time in Loutraki, Greece, on 12-15 February. The meeting was attended by the representatives of all Mediterranean countries (except three) and the EU. In a very working and constructive atmosphere, the experts continued the task assigned to them by the Contracting Parties in Portoroz, in 2005, on reviewing and drafting the final version of the Protocol. The participants worked on the third part of the document first and then returned to those still open articles that needed more discussion and time for building consensus on the wording. In this way, the text was completely reviewed once again. In spite of this, there are still some pending, more difficult, articles that will need more efforts for harmonisation between the parties in order to come to a satisfactory agreement for everyone. It is only in this way, when the parties have no reservations or doubts of a specific wording that the draft can be presented at the Contracting Parties Meeting to be held in December this year. Therefore, it was concluded to gather the WG for the fourth time in June.<\/p>\n