Despite the preparatory works carried out since 1978 towards the international negotiation of a Protocol on appropriate rules and procedures for the determination of liability and compensation for damage resulting from pollution of the marine environment in the Mediterranean Sea Area, the Ninth Ordinary Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention (Barcelona, 5-8 June 1995) discussed this subject again and invited the Secretariat to convene a first Meeting of government-designated legal and technical experts in order to review a draft to be prepared by the Secretariat, taking into account the work of other international bodies on the subject. This first Meeting of Government-designated legal and technical experts was held at Rijeka, Croatia, from 23 to 25 September 1997 and other Meetings are scheduled for the near future. Therefore, in this paper I will examine the contents already agreed on this topic that are, at present, under international negotiations, as well as the main problems on which consensus has not yet been possible.