On Thursday 26.11 Carlo Franzosini, as representative of AdriaPAN, met the Board of MedPAN at the headquarters of Sinis MPA, in Sardinia. Following the invitation of MedPAN addressed to the secretariat of AdriaPAN, we discussed about an evolution of our Adriatic network meant at providing a legal status for it.
1) The demand for a legal status
AdriaN is, currently, a voluntary association. In order to finalize its underlying purpose – which is to "maximize the planning capacity through partnership" - it should evolve towards a form of association with a clear own juridical personality, eligible for EU funding. Our future capacity to participate to the public calls for the Adriatic-Ionian region, focusing environmental conservation, the management and establishment of MPA networks, depends on this fulfillment.
In a first consideration, this new association could act in form of a consortium providing services to the protected areas and other entities underwriters of the Cerrano Charter. The operation could be guaranteed by the contribution of work - voluntary work, as until now – made available by some of these organizations. Small expenses should, however, be covered by a fund, set up by the membership fees paid by institutions participating in the initiatives to be undertaken (or by all the entities belonging to AdriaPAN).
2) Meeting MedPAN board
During the meeting with the board of MedPAN we discussed the need of a legal status for our sub-regional network. This was the first time that the broader network - which includes our AdriaPAN - tackled the issue of the constitution of a sub-regional network holding its own legal status.
The issue was then discussed in several respects :
- the recognition of an entity with its own legal status and a registered office in a country (or region) - eligible for EU fundings which will interest a specific area - has never been tackled before.
- It was made clear that AdriaPAN does not intend to set up a new office with new employees, but will only catalyze the production of projects by the participating institutions, i.e. facilitating networking between them.
- AdriaPAN – once it will be able to represent in a formal way the present ensemble of separate entities - will be particularly effective there where participation in public tenders entails restrictions in the number of participants to the same proposal, or in the overall number of proposals to be presented.
- We were made aware about the amount of work that such an association involves. In this sense AdriaPAN should not get to the complexity level and variety of skills hosted in MedPAN. In this sense, AdriaPAN intends to use all of the technical expertises already made available by the wider network. Our goal is, and will remain, the networking of the entities under Cerrano Charter.
- At the conclusion of the meeting, the board asked for the due time to formualate its assessments about our proposal, recognizing also that it will not interfere with the decisions that the Adriatic association intends to take about its future.
3) Miramare provides one worker
Miramare MPA is providing an employee for the pursuit of point 1) "The damand for a legal status for AdriaPAN". His task will be to:
- get in touch with AdriaPAN members, asking their thought about this objective and their intention to join - even in an expensive way - to the new entity
- assess - with the help of external consultants - the the legal form and registered office deemed most appropriate
- start a draft statute
- quantify an annual operating budget, propose the annual installments for the membership.
To this regard any collaboration or advice from AdriaPAN members is warmly welcome. The contact can be performed directly by email, webinar or post on the website and social networks.
