Mediterranean and British policy on coastal pollution control  <B>Mediterranean and British policy on coastal pollution control</B><P>G. Parsons</B><I><P> History Department, Lancaster University, Lancaster, U.K</I><P> Abstract<P> The Mediterranean Action Plan (MedPlan) was a collective effort to coordinate the marine pollution control practices of all eighteen Mediterranean littoral countries. Mediterranean governments sought to coordinate their pollution control practices in a communal effort to reduce pollution. Being a common resource, different countries wished to use the Mediterranean for different purposes, and hence disagreed about the need for immediate action and the pollutants to control. Governments were also concerned about the effect that the control of marine pollution would have on industry and population lying near the coast together with the retardation of further industrialization. Although some progress has been made, the cooperative principle did not overcome sovereignty and governments were only willing to pursue new goals, or only learned as much as that which did not severely interfere with their traditional responsibilities. But this is not a new phenomena. We only have to look at E.C. directives on marine water quality and the responses of member countries to find parallels. Britain is one of the worse offenders, and this paper compares the British Government's response to E.C. initiatives to those of Mediterranean countries to the Med.Plan.<P>