Join the Med is a knowledge hub dedicated to addressing sustainable tourism issues in the Mediterranean. Its primary goal is to identify practical tools, methods and solutions that promote and advance sustainability in the tourism sector. By highlighting sustainable tourism (...) Read more.

The ocean shapes our economies, our food systems, even the air we breathe. To better protect our ocean, the Commission has adopted a European Ocean Pact, which will help to promote a thriving blue economy and support the well-being of people (...) Read more.

The Commission welcomes the provisional agreement reached between the European Parliament and the Council on the Commission's proposal to regulate and prevent microplastic pollution from plastic pellets, across the value chain, including during transport, notably at sea. The new Regulation will (...) Read more.

On April 11, 2025, the European Commission welcomed an agreement at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), as a meaningful step towards achieving net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from global shipping by 2050. This is a historic deal in the fight against climate (...) Read more.

The UfM Co-Presidency and Secretariat are pleased to invite you to the Med Day taking place on 10 June, in Nice (France), in the framework of the 3rd United Nations Conference on Oceans (UNOC-3), hosted by France and convened by the governments (...) Read more.

Last week, the European Commission published its 2025 EU Blue Economy Report. The report presents the economic performance of the EU blue economy sectors and provides estimations of their economic performance.  It shows that the EU blue economy is on an upward (...) Read more.

On April 29, 2025, at Our Ocean Conference in Busan, in the Republic of Korea, the European Union announced €301,485,000 in EU funding to support actions in the fields of the sustainable blue economy, marine pollution, marine protected areas, digital oceans, sustainable (...) Read more.

On April 24, 2025, the Commission presented a proposal to integrate the landmark international Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction' (BBNJ) Agreement, which aims to protect the ocean, tackle environmental degradation, fight climate change, and curb biodiversity loss, into EU law. This will also help (...) Read more.

A sustainable Blue Economy requires support to promote and uptake innovation, knowledge, skills as well as access to finance, which is effective and locally-grounded. This is possible through joint actions promoted by socio-economic and institutional actors at local, national and (...) Read more.

The EMFAF project ‘Green Marine Med‘ (one of the 4 successfully supported projects by the WestMED Technical Group on Green Shipping), is implementing an series of events across the Mediterranean, to engage stakeholders and further exploit the planned activities of the newly (...) Read more.

The recent WestMED Steering Committee meeting held on 9 April 2025 marked a significant moment of transition and collaboration among Mediterranean partners. The new co-presidency, now held by Tunisia and Portugal, was warmly welcomed, and gratitude extended to Mauritania for (...) Read more.

On 26 January 2023, CINEA together with DG MARE launched the Community of Practice on Maritime Spatial Planning for the Mediterranean, with the support of the WestMed Initiative. This is a voluntary expert group from EU and non-EU countries working on (...) Read more.

On 12 March 2025, the Spanish National Event of the WestMED Initiative took place in Madrid at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation.  The event, from 9:00-14:00 CET, gathered around 56 participants from various sectors of tourism activities, (...) Read more.

To address the impact-driven approach of the Mission and the nature of Innovation Actions, funding under the Mission 'Restore our Ocean and Waters' projects is also available for Associated Regions. The goal of these calls is to showcase the feasibility, (...) Read more.

The Blue-Cloud 2026 project has launched an online consultation to co-design the further evolution of Blue-Cloud, a digital ecosystem that marine scientists and innovators can harness to engage in Open Science and advance Ocean research. If you work to advance marine knowledge, you (...) Read more.

Effective policymaking relies on timely, relevant, and accessible knowledge. To turn science into impact, it must not only address pressing challenges but also resonate with decision-makers across sectors and regions. Building on the priorities of the Barcelona Statement, the new Call for Decade (...) Read more.

Together with Interreg Euro MED, the Union for the Mediterranean is  pleased to invite you to the second edition of the webinar “MED Talks: Fostering Dialogue Between Northern and Southern Shores”, taking place online on 16 December 2024 at 10:00 (...) Read more.

The aim of this call for tender is to map the EU Ocean Observation landscape, develop and propose methodologies to enhance synergies and coordination of Ocean Observation including the description of two use cases and a strategy for stakeholder consultation and (...) Read more.

The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) has published the third edition of its periodic publication on the status of the Sustainable Blue Economy in the Mediterranean, following the 2021 and 2017 versions.  The aim of this publication remains to provide (...) Read more.

The subject of this call for tenders is to provide support towards streamlining, enhanced accessibility, harmonisation, and efficiency of Article 19(3) ‘primary’ data management of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive. This focuses on data on the 11 descriptors (Annex (...) Read more.

Every year the EU4Ocean Coalition selects and funds a (limited) number of projects for one year that contribute to the strengthening of ocean literacy in Europe, focusing on the topics identified in the ‘Challenge of the year’.  In 2025, the (...) Read more.

From 3 to 7 March , Brussels became the hub of ocean action as the European Ocean Days brought together researchers, policymakers, youth and industry leaders to discuss how to preserve Europe’s marine ecosystems and boost its blue economy. With 14 events (...) Read more.

In the last 15 years several EU funding programmes have addressed marine litter under different perspectives. The outcome is a wide range of EU research projects and associated results and a newly released Free Litter Toolkit. The growing amount of (...) Read more.

Are you a Blue Economy professional and aspiring Maritime Cluster Manager looking to stay ahead in the dynamic world of the Blue Economy sector in the Mediterranean region? Look no further! Introducing the “LEARNING LABS FOR EMERGING MARITIME CLUSTERS” workshop (...) Read more.

Maritime transport and Ports probably represent the core sector, to win the challenge of sustainability of the Blue Economy, considering its impact in terms of Gross Value Added (GVA) and jobs creation across the EU and its neighbouriung regions. Greening (...) Read more.

On 4 November 2024, a Blue Skills Survey took place as part of the “Study to support and design skills development in the blue economy” commissioned by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and CINEA. The survey report with the results is now (...) Read more.

On 27 January 2025,  the European Commission opened a public consultation to gather evidence, insights, concerns, ideas, and feedback on the effectiveness of the common fisheries policy (CFP) regulation from a range of stakeholders, including individuals, the fisheries and maritime (...) Read more.

The Interreg NEXT MED Programme is pleased to announce the official launch of the Call for Green Transition Projects, providing €83.7 million in European Union’s funding to address climate challenges across the Mediterranean region. Building on the success of the (...) Read more.

You can now access the 2023-2024 West Med Implementation Report and read all about the achievements of these past two years.In 2024, the WestMED Initiative completed six years of implementation and it’s time to take stock of the achievements made so far (...) Read more.

10 - 17 June 2025 | Trieste (Italy), Piran (Slovenia)The summer school is focused on Ocean and Climate: Building Capacity and Developing Skills for a Sustainable Blue Economy. It covers multidisciplinary fields related to the marine and maritime sectors, providing both (...) Read more.

On February 19th, 2025, Observers and Experts gathered together at the UfM Secretariat premises in Barcelona, Spain, for the 17th meeting of the UfM Regional Platform on Sustainable Blue Economy.   UfM countries and Mediterranean SBE stakeholders gathered together in order (...) Read more.

We are pleased to share below relevant details on the upcoming Online Training Sessions on the Blueprint for Tourism Climate Action Plans to be held between January and February 2025 in the framework of the Community4Tourism project. Following a first capacity-building session held (...) Read more.

The newly-published EU Coastline Macro Litter Trend report found that the amount of marine macro litter (items bigger than 2.5 cm) in the EU coastline has dropped by 29 % between the baseline period (2015-2016) and the assessment period (2020-2021). (...) Read more.

Are you a startup entrepreneur looking to make waves in the green shipping industry? The Green Marine Med Call for Green Shipping Innovation is your chance to contribute significantly to environmentally friendly maritime transport. Green Marine Med Call for Green Shipping Innovation is (...) Read more.

On October 2nd, 2024, UfM countries, Observers, and Experts gathered together in Faro (Portugal) for the 16th meeting of the UfM Regional Platform on Sustainable Blue Economy (SBE) in order to continue to set the path towards the implementation of (...) Read more.

A European Commission assessment published on Tuesday finds that progress has been made towards the good environmental status required under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), particularly concerning marine litter, but significant gaps remain in the programmes of measures submitted (...) Read more.

The stakeholder survey on the 1st European Assessment Report on Sea Level Rise is now open for feedback from its readers and users until Tuesday, 4 February 2025.  The survey is an opportunity to share your opinion and use of the report, provide feedback on its relevance and (...) Read more.

The European Commission has launched a call for evidence to shape the European Oceans Pact, a political initiative that aims to promote sustainable Ocean management and ensure the health, resilience, and productivity of the Ocean and thus the prosperity of the EU’s coastal (...) Read more.

The European Commission has opened a public consultation to gather evidence, insights, concerns, ideas, and feedback on the effectiveness of the common fisheries policy (CFP) regulation from a range of stakeholders, including individuals, the fisheries and maritime sectors, scientists, non-governmental (...) Read more.

The Interreg NEXT MED Programme is pleased to announce the official launch of the Call for Green Transition Projects, providing €83.7 million in European Union’s funding to address climate challenges across the Mediterranean region.The call aims to support innovative and collaborative solutions (...) Read more.

The European Commission's European Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) 2024 call for proposals targets two key areas to promote the sustainable growth of the EU’s blue economy. With EUR 5.7 million, the call for proposals seeks to fund regional flagships (...) Read more.

The UNEP/MAP is pleased to announce the opening of the MAP/Barcelona Convention Anniversaries Celebrations with the Launch of the Second Edition of the Mediterranean Quality Status Report. The opening of the Campaign will start on 23 January 2025, at 11:30 (...) Read more.

The Commission has just released the EU Fish Market report 2024, which focuses on the fishery and aquaculture market’s performance in 2022-2023.   1. Europeans eat less fresh seafood at home because of rising prices.  According to the report, 2023 saw a (...) Read more.

The European Commission has published three new staff working documents to promote sustainable aquaculture in the European Union. These documents focus on three crucial topics: access to space and water for freshwater and land-based aquaculture, climate-change adaptation, and energy transition.   (...) Read more.

The European Union's BlueInvest platform is a pioneering initiative aimed at accelerating innovation and investment opportunities in the sustainable blue economy.  The European blue economy has grown faster than the overall land-based economy over the past decade and has been (...) Read more.

SEAWATER Cubes, a German startup founded in 2018, aims to transform seafood production with its modular decentralised aquaculture system. This alternative approach to conventional farming methods provides more sustainable seafood, supports global food security, and offers an innovative source of (...) Read more.

The Mission Ocean and Waters Immersive Web Experience invites everyone to explore the Mission in a new, unique and interactive online platform that showcases the Mission goals, Lighthouses, and the diverse community working to restore Europe's ocean and waters. Through (...) Read more.

The European Commission will host a week-long event to address the pressing issues facing the world's ocean. From 3 to 7 March 2025, the European Ocean Days will bring together experts, policymakers, and stakeholders from various fields to discuss sustainable (...) Read more.

The COST Action Rethinking the Blue Economy: Socio-Ecological Impacts and Opportunities (RethinkBlue) is pleased to announce a Training School on Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) to be held in Santorini, Bellonia Cultural Centre, Fira from April 2 to April 5, 2025. (...) Read more.

The Union for the Mediterranean, MedPAN, and the World Ocean Council, have the pleasure of inviting you to the upcoming online webinar titled "Other effective conservation measures (OECM) - State of play and next steps for the Mediterranean Sea", which (...) Read more.

ProBleu, a Mission Ocean and Waters project, will reveal the results of its third funding call for schools in early 2025. Don’t miss this opportunity to see which innovative educational programmes will make waves in the coming year! ProBleu funding (...) Read more.

What do Seagrass aquaculture, plastic waste removals, restoring biodiversity and circular economy have in common? They all play a crucial role in advancing the EU Mission ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters’ – one of five missions under Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and (...) Read more.

Apply to become a SpongeWorks Associated Region and receive support to enhance the sponge function of your landscapes, improving water retention, soil health, and climate resilience. Eight regions will be selected to receive up to €100,000 each in grant funding (...) Read more.

The Horizon Europe project BioEcoOcean is spearheading efforts to answer these questions and improve collaboration and understanding of marine life through the development of a Blueprint for Integrated Ocean Science (BIOS), or simply referred to as “the Blueprint”.  The first survey, open until 15 (...) Read more.

Where: Palacongressi di Rimini Via della Fiera 23, 47923 Rimini RN, Italy How to get there When: Wednesday and Thursday, 11 and 12 December 2024  09:00 – 17:30 CET (first day) and 09:00 – 18:00 CET (second day) Watch the (...) Read more.

During the 47th annual meeting of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM), which took place on 4-8 November in Rome, the EU and neighbourhood countries agreed on important measures in favour of sustainability of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.  The EU and (...) Read more.

Since 2017, the Commission, in partnership with IOC-UNESCO, is supporting/funding the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Global initiative to promote better use of maritime space at a global scale. It aims to meet the ambitious goal of covering at least 1/3 of the (...) Read more.

The Commission has launched a call for applications for the selection of members of the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF).   The STECF members support the European Commission by delivering scientific advice prior to the preparation of legislative (...) Read more.

The EU Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Week marked a decade of EU support to cross-border cooperation on maritime spatial planning. Last month, the European Maritime Spatial Planning Week brought the MSP community together in Marseille (France) to reflect on the (...) Read more.

Join our online campaign What’s the issue closest to your heart? How should it be addressed? Share it on social media and use #MediterraneanDay. Organise or frame an event  We encourage you to share your activities on the dedicated website, (...) Read more.

Apply to receive tailored technical assistance for your project restoring our ocean and waters! Mission Ocean and Waters has launched the second cycle of Call for Technical Assistance supporting ports, islands, and fisheries communities’ projects aligned with Mission Ocean and (...) Read more.

The Mediterranean Coast Guard Functions Forum (MCGFF) convened in Tirana, Albania, from October 29 to 31, 2024. This marked the first time Albania hosted the forum, underscoring its commitment to regional maritime cooperation. Organized by the Albanian Coast Guard and (...) Read more.

The European Commission launched a new call for proposals funded under the European Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF).  With EUR 5.7 million, the call for proposals seeks to fund regional flagships projects supporting sustainable blue economy in EU sea basins for Smart (...) Read more.

In the framework of the sequence of high-level SBE-related gatherings organized in Algiers in mid-October, UfMS was represented at the 1st edition of the Algerian Blue Economy Conference (ABEC) held on 15 October in Algiers, as well as in related back-to-back (...) Read more.

On November 7th, Ecomondo is organizing an event titled "Accelerating Blue Interregional Cooperation in the Mediterranean Basin. Sharing a common strategic vision, creating transferrable collaboration models." The Mediterranean Sea basin is an area with a huge potential, given its 46.000km (...) Read more.

The Sun&Blue Congress, an important annual meeting on Tourism and the Blue Economy, is set to take place from November 20 to 22, 2024, at the Cabo de Gata Exhibition and Conference Center in Almería, Spain. This congress offers a (...) Read more.

The Co-Presidency and Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean have the pleasure of inviting you to the upcoming UfM Webinar on ‘Fostering the Sustainable Development of Marine Renewable Energy through Effective Licensing and Maritime Spatial Planning’, taking place on (...) Read more.

The Co-Presidency and Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean have the pleasure of inviting you to the upcoming UfM Webinar on "Scaling up synergies and partnerships for the sustainable maritime and coastal tourism transformation in the Mediterranean", scheduled on June 20, 2024, at (...) Read more.

The European Commission is pleased to announce the publication of a call for proposals under the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) supporting Smart Specialisation and Innovation in the EU sustainable blue economy. The call covers two separate topics, one (...) Read more.

Key outcomes and messages  emerging from the parallel workshops dedicated to the priorities of the 2021 UfM Ministerial Declaration on SBE are summarized in the report available hereStakeholder engagement is at the core of the institutional mechanism set up towards the (...) Read more.

We are pleased to inform that the WestMED Hackathon 2024 will take place on 3 October 2024, in the region of Algarve, Portugal. This event marks the 3rd edition of the interactive stakeholder Hackathon that takes place every 2 years, with (...) Read more.

Background - Summary Following the adoption of the 2nd UfM Ministerial Declaration on Sustainable Blue Economy (SBE) in February 2021, the UfM EU and Jordan Co-Presidency, UfM countries, and the UfM Secretariat agreed to elaborate the Roadmap for the implementation (...) Read more.

Exciting news! 26 new projects from 37 countries have been added to the Mission Ocean and Waters.   The European Commission has recently announced 26 new projects funded under the Mission Ocean and Waters call, across its major EU seas and (...) Read more.

MedPAN, a pivotal member of the EU Blue Parks Community, is leading innovative marine conservation initiatives in the Mediterranean through active engagement and community-driven approaches, particularly via the Forum of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Mediterranean, with its 4th edition (...) Read more.

On March 20, 2024, the Union for the Mediterranean co-organized a webinar on sustainable blue agri-food systems in the Mediterranean, under the framework of the SFS-MED Platform, a multi-stakeholder initiative initiated by the UfMS, FAO and CIHEAM. If you want (...) Read more.

The Day of the Mediterranean is back! Discover the 2024 campaign The Mediterranean region faces highs and lows, with several challenges threatening our region's future. Yet, these issues also present opportunities to shape the Mediterranean we want, built on resilience, cooperation, and (...) Read more.

The European Commission - Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries has decided to launch a one-year study to analyse the blue economy industry needs, existing academic/training programmes, and consequent gaps, so as to help inform a better policy response at EU level and provide very valuable information (...) Read more.

The Nature Restoration Law (NRL) is now officially published and will enter into force on 18 August, 2024. This law establishes rules aimed at supporting the long-term recovery of biodiverse and resilient ecosystems across EU Member States' land and sea areas through the restoration of degraded (...) Read more.

Palais du Pharo - Marseille, France - 22nd October 2024, 09:00-17:45 CET Join us for exciting and dynamic conference exploring the evolving landscape of MSP. This event brings together experts, policymakers, and industry leaders from across the European Union and (...) Read more.

Be part of European MSP Week 22nd – 24th October 2024! This series of dynamic events is dedicated to Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) and offers a unique opportunity for stakeholders from industry, civil society, the public sector, and academia to come together. (...) Read more.

The WestMED initiative would like to welcome you to their webinar focused on Sustainable Tourism which will be held on 6 September (10am -12am) to present the objectives of the technical stakeholder group and highlight the achievements of three EMFAF funded projects on sustainable tourism, that (...) Read more.

Deadline to register for this 1st Call for experts: 15 September 2024 (EOB). Only applications submitted within the deadline will be accepted. About the Technical Group on Sustainable Tourism Given the fact that tourism plays such a significant role in the Western (...) Read more.

The European Commission launched a consultation to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the common fisheries policy (CFP). This consultation constitutes the first part of a thorough evaluation that will look at how the CFP has achieved its objectives since (...) Read more.

The European Commission launched two consultations to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of past and current funding programmes for fisheries and maritime activities.  The first consultation aims to gather evidence and different perspectives on the management and use of the funds from various actors (...) Read more.

On June 2024 at the Digital Ocean Forum (DOF), European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Iliana Ivanova and other high-level representatives from Belgium, France and the European Commission unveiled the first pre-operational platform of the European Digital Twin Ocean (...) Read more.

The European Commission welcomed on June 2024 the adoption by the Council of a decision to conclude the United Nations agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ), also known as the ‘High Seas Treaty’. With this decision, the EU is now ready (...) Read more.

Discover the European Maritime Spatial Planning Platform - Find out how this information and communication gateway offers support to all EU Member States in their efforts to implement MSP, as a key enabler and tool to ensure the most sustainable and (...) Read more.

The MSP-GREEN project has the pleasure of inviting to the upcoming workshop "Maritime Spatial Plans as enablers of the European Green Deal: Mediterranean discussion on the recommendations prepared by the MSP-GREEN project", taking place in Izola (Slovenia) and online on the 20th of (...) Read more.

The European Maritime Spatial Planning Platform (EU MSP) wants to hear from stakeholders who participated in, or wanted to, in national MSP consultation in EU countries. As MSP has become a crucial component of environmental governance across the EU, Member (...) Read more.

Launched on the heels of the 2024 Ocean Decade Conference, Call for Decade Actions No. 07/2024 aims to fill gaps in funding and resources, as well as to incentivize new initiatives in capacity development as part of the Ocean Decade Capacity Development (...) Read more.

The Ocean Panel has commissioned a new Blue Paper on the future of employment in a sustainable ocean economy to inform their activities. As authors of this Blue Paper, they are looking to gather insights and opinions from ocean experts (...) Read more.

Following up on the adoption by the 43 member countries of the UfM in February 2021 of the 2nd UfM Ministerial Declaration on Sustainable Blue Economy, UfM countries, Co-Presidency, and Secretariat, agreed to elaborate a Roadmap for the implementation of (...) Read more.

The Nature Restoration Law is the first continent-wide, comprehensive law of its kind. It is a key element of the EU Biodiversity Strategy, which sets binding targets to restore degraded ecosystems, in particular those with the most potential to capture and store carbon and to prevent and (...) Read more.

Jointly promoted and managed by the BRIDGE-BS and DOORS projects, the Black Sea Accelerator (BSA) is a comprehensive initiative designed to foster the development of innovative blue economy projects aimed at sustainable growth in the Black Sea region. The BSA offers a range of targeted activities, including training sessions, (...) Read more.

As part of the Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON), there is an open call for projects that are focused on restoration, protection and establishment of new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), to apply for funding opportunities and support the Mission Ocean objective 1 – Protect and restore marine (...) Read more.

Following up on the 13th UfM Working Group on Sustainable Blue Economy (SBE) held in Brussels on 14 March 2023 back-to-back with the First meeting of the Blue Mediterranean Partnership (BMP), UfM countries and Mediterranean SBE stakeholders and partners met (...) Read more.

The European Commission has just published the 2020-2023 report on its activities to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing), in accordance with the IUU Regulation. Improved traceability and digital tools at the service of IUU controls (...) Read more.

The Commission has published two staff working documents to support EU Member States in facilitating the sustainable growth of aquaculture. This comes in response to aquaculture producers’ calls to reduce the administrative burden on establishing and operating aquaculture sites in the (...) Read more.

Last month, the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA), in the context of the European Union funded e-FishMed project, launched an exchange programme to enhance cooperation and to promote sharing of expertise and best practices in the fight against Illegal, Unreported (...) Read more.

The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and the World Ocean Council (WOC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at UfM Headquarters in Barcelona in the framework of the 2021 UfM Ministerial Declaration on Sustainable Blue Economy and Roadmap for its (...) Read more.

Two new Interreg Euro-MED projects (NaTour4CChange and Blue Ecosystem) and one Horizon project (Crete Valley) will cover topics such as the use of Nature-based Solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation in the tourism sector, innovation for a more sustainable (...) Read more.

The Managing Authority of the EU-funded Interreg NEXT MED Programme, in agreement with the representatives of the 15 participating countries, is pleased to announce the launching of the first call for proposals. With a substantial budget of €103.6 million, this call represents (...) Read more.

The Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe (CPMR), with the support of its Islands Commission, starts cooperating with Hellenic Hull, to provide a dedicated online guest lecture on EU maritime policies within the framework of the E-sealearning pilot programme. The (...) Read more.

The 1st Steering Committee of the project took place online last 28th of March with the presentation of the partners and the sharing of the first activities, which are already underway.  The overall objective of BLUE ECOSYSTEM is to enhance the (...) Read more.

The online Consultation Workshop to present and co-design the ISEC Hub took place on Tuesday 26th of March. The Innovative Sustainable Economy Mission met with the Hub Ambassadors to share ideas and get their feedback. The meeting brought together 36 (...) Read more.

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership’s workshop "Blue Economy - The key towards Mediterranean regional Sustainability" is part of the POSIDONIA International Shipping Exhibition. It will take place June 7th, 2024 in Athens. The Partnership is committed to engaging key actors (...) Read more.

The European Union confirmed at the Our Ocean Conference in Greece its strong engagement for international ocean governance by announcing 40 commitments for action for 2024. These actions will be funded by €3.5 billion from various EU funds. They represent the biggest amount ever announced by the EU (...) Read more.

The ports have been commended for their sustainable and innovative practices to support the Mission ‘Restore our Ocean & Waters by 2030’  The Ports of Antwerp-Bruges, Ravenna, Heraklion and Galataport have been identified as the winners of three award categories (...) Read more.

The applications for the WeMed Award 2024 are now open. This current fourth edition, funded by the SwitchMed Programme, is addressed to entrepreneurs or companies in the Blue Economy sector that have integrated environmental and social values into their business models, in addition to having developed an economically (...) Read more.

The 2nd UfM Stakeholder Conference on Sustainable Blue Economy took place on February 19 and 20 in the Greek capital, with over 350 participants evaluating the progress made within the framework of the 10 Sustainable Blue Economy priority areas adopted (...) Read more.

Plan Bleu are pleased to announce the launch of ARTEMIS, an ambitious project co-funded by the Interreg Euro-MED Program , dedicated to the restoration of Posidonia seagrass meadows in the Mediterranean Sea. This project brings together 10 partners and 3 associated partners, (...) Read more.

On February 13, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) organized in Rabat a closing event for pilot projects aimed at fostering sustainability and economic growth within Morocco’s fish processing sector. These initiatives, which have been underway since 2021 as (...) Read more.

The aim of the BlueMissionMed survey is to collect the voices of all actors in the Mediterranean basin, concerning the needs, gaps and priorities for the prevention, minimization and elimination-remediation of pollution from chemicals, plastics and microplastics. Through this participatory process, (...) Read more.

Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) requires strategic vision to coordinate the use of the sea for marine protection et human activities. It needs reliable and comparable data and good cooperation between EU Member States, and with their neighbouring countries. CINEA and (...) Read more.

This free pilot course aims at bridging the gap between the existing needs and the current skillset of Maritime Clusters Managers, ensuring upskilling, for the outline of an innovative professional profile for an increased competitiveness of Maritime Clusters in the (...) Read more.

This year’s WestMED Stakeholder Conference was hosted in Malta on June 22, 2023.  More than 100 stakeholders from around the region, gathered in-person to exchange experiences on a wide variety of blue economy topics and meet fellow experts. National representatives (...) Read more.

The EU Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030 is pleased to announce that the BlueMissionMed CSA proclaims the “Blue Ports and Destinations” Award, to be awarded to 3 ports and destinations. The “Blue Ports and Destinations” Award aims at recognising, promoting, and supporting the (...) Read more.

On February 11, 2024, the GFCM Scientific Committee on Aquaculture (CAQ), organized a workshop in close cooperation with WestMED Algeria on Climate Change, Resilient Aquaculture, and Mitigation Strategies. This event took place during the International Fisheries and Aquaculture exhibition (SIPA Algerie 2024), in (...) Read more.

On February 12, 2024, the Algerian National Hub of the WestMED Initiative, in coordination with the Ministry of Fisheries and Fisheries Production, organized their national event focused on on ‘Green Shipping in Algeria.’ This took place in Oran, Algeria. The (...) Read more.

A new strategic agreement between Greek and Tunisian maritime clusters represents an official gateway to boost the blue economy between the western and eastern Mediterranean. On 19 February 2024,  During the 2nd Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Stakeholders Conference in Athens, the  (...) Read more.

On December 18, 2023, WestMED’s National Hub Spain hosted a webinar titled  “Opportunities and experiences for decarbonizing recreational and fishing vessels and ports”. The meeting, organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, (...) Read more.

The objective of this call for proposals is to facilitate the implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) in the EU, including through the effective application of Directive 2014/89 establishing a framework for MSP. This call, which will be open until (...) Read more.

The Interreg Euro-MED Programme is launching its 4th Call for Projects, open for submissions between 12 March and 12 June 2024. The subject of this 4th open call for proposals is the financing of thematic projects that correspond to the following priorities and (...) Read more.

The UfM EU and Jordan Co-Presidency, the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean, and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Island Policy of the Hellenic Republic have the pleasure of inviting you to participate in the 2nd UfM Stakeholder Conference on (...) Read more.

The European Commission has launched a new call for proposals for a demonstrator pilot project to foster the energy transition in the fisheries sector. The call for proposals is funded under the EU Pilot Project Funds with a budget of (...) Read more.

We are pleased to inform you that the applications for the Summer School organized by OGS in the framework of the Blue Skills initiative, in collaboration with the Euro-Mediterranean University, are open and candidates can apply through this link.   (...) Read more.

EU regions or Member States are invited to express their interest in hosting the Smart Specialisation (S3) Conference 2024 this autumn. It will be an occasion to unite the S3 Community, offering a platform for stakeholders to network, exchange knowledge, (...) Read more.

This second co-funded call aims to support transnational research and innovation projects of 36 months duration, addressing one of the four priority areas below (subject to funded priority areas by participating funding organisations): (1) Digital Twins of the Ocean at (...) Read more.

Who are today’s fishers? Over the last three months, a team of national researchers led by Tetra Tech and partners, a consortium contracted by the European Commission, have consulted fishers in all 22 coastal EU Member States to define who they are, how (...) Read more.

In the framework of the EU Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030”, BlueMissionAA and MPA Europe projects are pleased to announce the MPA Awards. The aim of the MPA Awards is to acknowledge, promote, and provide support to outstanding Marine Protected Areas that (...) Read more.

The European Commission has announced an open call for expression of interest for new partnerships under the Smart Specialisation (S3) Platform on Sustainable Blue Economy. EU Regions and stakeholders interested in exploring new interregional value chains in fisheries, aquaculture, coastal and maritime tourism, blue (...) Read more.

On December 2023, EU Fisheries Ministers agreed fishing opportunities for 2024 for the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Implementation of the western Mediterranean multiannual management plan For the western Mediterranean, the Ministers agreed to continue the implementation of the EU multiannual management plan (...) Read more.

This year marked the first edition of the Sun&Blue Congress; an international conference and exhibition focused on Blue Tourism Innovation. It took place in Almería, Spain from 15-17 November 2023. The WestMED Iniatiative was given a special Award Mention for having (...) Read more.

For the first time in the five years of Technical Assistance, the WestMED Assistance Mechanism experienced a national Blue Economy event in Libya on Nov 30th 2023. This was done upon the initiative of the National Coordinators, Mr Ali Shagruni (...) Read more.

As part of the WestMED Initiative, Mauritania’s national hub, in close coordination with the Ministry of Fisheries and Maritime Economy, organized the 4th national WestMED event at the Nouakchott Hotel on Tuesday, October 31, 2023. This important meeting was chaired (...) Read more.

Deadline: 21 January 2024 Budget: Max €25.000 (single MPA) to €45.000 (3 MPAs or more that cooperate) Countries: Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia,Greece, Cyprus, Malta,Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Monaco, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and (...) Read more.

Are you planning to apply for the Interreg NEXT MED first call for proposals? Don’t miss the upcoming online events on 23 and 24 of January where you will have the opportunity to gain knowledge to enhance your project development. (...) Read more.

This 2023 special edition of the GFCM’s flagship publication, The State of Mediterranean and Black Sea Fisheries, updates statistics and figures on the status and management of fisheries in the region and includes, for the first time, an overview of (...) Read more.

On 26 January 2023, CINEA together with DG MARE, launched the ‘Community of Practice on Maritime Spatial Planning for the Mediterranean’, with the support of the WestMED Initiative, the MSP Assistance Mechanism and Union for Mediterranean. This is a voluntary, (...) Read more.

The 23rd Meeting (COP23) of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention and its Protocols, which took place on 5-8 December 2023 in Portoroz (Slovenia), adopted important steps to protect ecosystems in the face of the rising impacts of the (...) Read more.

Last week at the Smart Specialisation (S3) Forum 2023, the launch of the brand new S3 CoP Observatory was announced as an important service that provides an important overview, serving as a central repository of information for S3s across the EU. The (...) Read more.

Whether you are an organisation, a public administration, a private entity or a citizen, you can take part. You can:1.      FRAME YOUR EVENT UNDER THE DAY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN You can organize new or frame planned events or initiatives in September-December under the Day of (...) Read more.

The European Commission has launched ‘Fishers of the Future’, an EU-wide participatory project that will examine the future role of fishers in society up to 2050.  The project will delve into the hopes, fears, expectations, and needs of fishers to understand how (...) Read more.

On Saturday 2 December, at the Blue Mediterranean Partnership's pledging conference, the European Commission committed to pledge €1 million to the recently established Blue Mediterranean Partnership. This collaborative initiative is designed to catalyse sustainable blue economy investments in the non-EU countries of the (...) Read more.

Among the main measures, the EU and neighbouring countries agreed within the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) to launch new tools to keep track of the activities of all fleets fishing in the Mediterranean and the Black Seas and sharing (...) Read more.

Join us on December 5, 2023 for a pivotal COP28 side event themed: "The Mediterranean leading the way for a cleaner sea: our biggest ally in the fight against climate change!" The event will take place at the Mediterranean Coalition Office – (...) Read more.

In a move towards addressing youth unemployment, the CLUSTER project published its policy report focusing on the Blue Economy (BE) in the Mediterranean. The report underscores the pivotal role of sustainable ocean resource management in creating employment opportunities, particularly for the youth (...) Read more.

On November 23, 2023, the Union for the Mediterranean participated in a regional workshop organized by Plan Bleu in Marseille, titled "Towards Data-Driven Sustainability in the Blue Economy of the Mediterranean". Focused on the evolving Mediterranean blue economy, the workshop (...) Read more.

The European Blue Forum’s 2nd Deep-Dive Workshop titled "What does a fossil-fuel-free blue economy look like? How can we as a community support this transition?" took place on October 16th, 2023. It served as a platform for stakeholders from different (...) Read more.

On October 10th 2023, the Commission adopted its proposal for fishing opportunities for 2024 for the Mediterranean and the Black Seas. The proposal promotes the sustainable management of fish stocks in the Mediterranean and the Black Seas and delivers on the political commitments made (...) Read more.

Last month, the European Commission and 20 EU and Mediterranean states renewed their commitments to deliver on their sustainability pledges made in the MedFish4Ever Declaration. The 2017 MedFish4Ever Declaration has been a cornerstone in regional fisheries governance, catalysing action to (...) Read more.

The Interreg Euro-MED Academy is an open-access learning space co-created by the eight Interreg MED Programme’s Thematic Communities (Blue Growth, Green Growth, Social & Creative, Efficient Buildings, Renewable Energy, Urban Transports, Sustainable Tourism, Biodiversity Protection) and PANORAMED, the governance platform, (...) Read more.

The 2024 edition of the European Maritime Day will take place in Svendborg, Denmark, on 30-31 May. Co-organised by the European Commission, the City of Svendborg and the Danish Maritime Authority, this fully-fledged physical event will feature inspiring high-level panels, attractive (...) Read more.

Taking place since 2018, the Forum Mondial de la Mer brings together key maritime players and stakeholders from the Southern shores of the Mediterranean to discuss key challenges and solutions. Including thematic sessions on climate change and the central importance (...) Read more.

With the support of the WestMED (WM) Assistance Mechanism and the Italian national clusters CTN BIG and Federazione del Mare, the Maritime Clusters Alliance organised an event during SeaFuture 2023 in LaSpezia Italy focused on the WestMED Maritime Cluster Alliance The (...) Read more.

The 4th meeting of the UfM Working Group on Environment and Climate Change took place in Sitges, Barcelona, on 24 May 2023. Member countries of the UfM Working Group on Environment and Climate Change, as well as different key stakeholders (CPMR, (...) Read more.

For the first time since the launch of the WestMED Initiative and the set-up of the Westmed Technical Assistance Mechanism, a joint national event was coordinated by the Italian and Maltese National Hubs, in Catania on Oct 4-6 2023. Substantial (...) Read more.

The EMFAF Regional flagships call, with a budget of EUR 7.6 million, focused on EU sea basins cooperation; in particular the Atlantic, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea Region and the EU Outermost Regions. Ten new projects just kicked off. (...) Read more.

The European Blue Economy report is a compass to help decision-makers and stakeholders navigate the waters of the European blue economy. The 2023 edition of the report highlights the evolution of the blue economy sectors since 2010. It shows that (...) Read more.

The Ocean Decade is looking for new expert members of its Decade Advisory Board  Deadline: 30 October 2023 As part of the Decade Advisory Board, the new expert members will play a key part in building the Ocean Decade roadmap to (...) Read more.

Highly dependent on marine resources, a large number of African countries and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are at various stages on the path to sustainable ocean management, facing both major challenges and great opportunities. To unlock this potential, the (...) Read more.

The European Commission has adopted today an amendment of the so-called 'de minimis' regulation for the fishery and aquaculture sector (‘Fishery de minimis Regulation'). The revised regulation, which exempts small aid amounts from State aid control since they are deemed to have no impact (...) Read more.

The ocean, covering over two-thirds of the Earth's surface, is a dynamic entity that supports life both in and out of the water. Its interconnected currents and systems influence the climate, while its rich biodiversity not only supports marine life, (...) Read more.

The High Seas Treaty, also known as the agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction or 'BBNJ', was signed in New York on 20 September, in the margins of the United Nations High Level Week. In addition to the EU as organisation, many countries (...) Read more.

UfM Countries and blue economy stakeholders met in Brussels on March 14 to continue making progress on the implementation of the 2021 UfM Ministerial Declaration on Sustainable Blue Economy and its related Roadmap, and to discuss ongoing and future joint (...) Read more.

On the 25th of September 2023, the Commission took another major step to protect the environment by adopting measures that restrict microplastics intentionally added to products under the EU chemical legislation REACH. The new rules will prevent the release to the environment of about half a million (...) Read more.

The “Blue careers for a sustainable blue economy” call made available nearly EUR 7.5 million to contribute to the development of the next generation of blue skills and to provide opportunities for attractive and sustainable maritime careers.  Eight projects were selected out (...) Read more.

The upcoming Consultation Day of the Interreg Euro-MED Programme that will be held online on October 17th. The objective of this meeting is to present the state of the art of the Interreg Euro-MED Programme by leveraging the insights and recommendations from third-party (...) Read more.

Dear Mediterranean Blue Economy Stakeholders, Dear colleagues and partners, We are pleased to share with you below the following UfM Call for Tenders in support of the UfM Roadmap on Sustainable Blue Economy: Procurement procedures and tenders at UfM (ufmsecretariat.org) (...) Read more.

In response to the growing degradation of marine and coastal ecosystems in Africa, an information webinar brought together stakeholders from Africa and the Adjacent Island States to discuss advances and next steps in catalysing science-based solutions to achieve the ocean (...) Read more.

Europe’s seas and oceans form an integral part of the European fabric with over a third of EU citizens living within 50km of the coastline. In addition, the European maritime and shipping industries are key employers, and they remain one (...) Read more.

The Mediterranean Sea is host to 10.000 islands, 2.000 of which are home to stable dwellings, societies, economies, with two of them – Cyprus and Malta – being Island States. The UfM joined Islands the Local 2030 Partnership to advance (...) Read more.

The #EUBeachCleanup campaign is organised by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE), with EEAS and the United Nations.  Raising awareness about marine pollution and how our habits impact our ocean is vital. Up to 37 million tonnes of plastic (...) Read more.

The European Commission adopted the 11th edition of the European List of ship recycling facilities. The updated list includes three new yards located in Türkiye. The Commission has also extended the date of expiry of inclusion of two listed yards located in Denmark (...) Read more.

 Innovation and technological change in the EU blue economy are at the foundation of smart and sustainable development of regions and companies alike. In this rapidly evolving context, Smart Specialization Strategies (S3) are one of the key tools enabling regions (...) Read more.

What is the Black Sea Accelerator? The BSA is a set of activities tailored to support business creation, marine and maritime innovation, and development of new marine-based technologies for sustainable growth. Application of the BSA is a ground-breaking approach for (...) Read more.

The call is open until 23 July 2023 here The 43 Member States of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) will designate annually two cities – from North and South of the Mediterranean – as Capitals of Culture & Dialogue. This new regional initiative (...) Read more.

The overall sustainability of the EU fisheries has improved and fewer stocks are overfished, according to a Commission Communication ‘Sustainable fishing in the EU: state of play and orientations for 2024'. At the same time, more efforts are necessary to ensure the resilience of fishing activities and continuous improvement of the (...) Read more.

The Commission is launching the Energy Transition Partnership for fisheries and aquaculture at the high-level conference ‘Joining forces for the energy transition in EU fisheries and aquaculture’. The Partnership will provide a central platform for all actors of the sea (...) Read more.

The 2-day online event took place on 17 & 18th July and presented the dissemination of project results and the development of a transferability strategy for the Mediterranean region, as part of the Co-Evolve4BG project. The first day of the (...) Read more.

The Treaty of the High Seas was adopted by consensus and standing ovation during the United Nations meeting in New York. This Treaty is key to protect the ocean, promote equity and fairness, tackle environmental degradation, fight climate change, and prevent biodiversity (...) Read more.

The Commission announced today 18 new projects which will receive over €106 million  to contribute to the EU Mission ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters'. The projects gather over 370 beneficiaries from 36 countries, including SMEs, research institutions, local authorities, schools and businesses. They will play a (...) Read more.

The high-level event Mission ‘Restore our ocean and waters by 2030 - the Mediterranean lighthouse in action’ ending today in Palermo, presented the political commitments made by the Mediterranean countries to the Mission. It also showcased an array of initiatives and (...) Read more.

On 26 May 2023, the European Commission launched the European Blue Forum to foster dialogue among all sea users, including offshore operators, stakeholders and scientists engaged in fisheries, aquaculture, shipping, tourism, renewable energy and other activities at sea. The objective of the European (...) Read more.

After the successful 2021 WestMED Stakeholder Conference in Rome and the 2022 Hackathons on project development in Malta, we invite you to the 2023 edition of the WestMED Stakeholder Conference. The Conference will be held on Thursday, 22 June 2023 in Malta. The event (...) Read more.

When reflecting back on the launch of the European Blue Forum, it is hard to believe that it is already one month since we met in Brest, France. Although the initiative is in its infancy, having only been launched in (...) Read more.

The National Institute of Marine Sciences and Technologies of Tunisia (INSTM), as the Lead Beneficiary of the Co-Evolve4BG project, and in partnership with Valenciaport Foundation, is delighted to invite you to our upcoming event, the “Co-Evolve4BG Results Sharing: Advancing Sustainable (...) Read more.

 July 13, 2023 (14.00 – 16.30 CEST) – online The webinar - held in English - aims to provide participants with information useful to make the most of the opportunities offered by Horizon Europe for international cooperation with third countries (...) Read more.

The Commission today presented five legislative proposals to modernise EU rules on maritime safety and prevent water pollution from ships. With 75% of the EU's external trade being seaborne, maritime transport is not only the artery of a globalised economy, but also a (...) Read more.

The Commission welcomes the provisional political agreement reached today between the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union on the revision of the fisheries control system proposed by the European Commission exactly 5 years ago with a view to (...) Read more.

The atmosphere in Brest is electric. The Brest Expo, lightened up in blue and white for the occasion, is immersed in a non-stop buzz of voices in the background. The European Maritime community has gathered for two days in this (...) Read more.

The European Commission has published its annual EU Blue Economy Report to take stock and uncover the latest trends and developments in all economic sectors related to the oceans and coastal areas. With close to 4.5 million people employed, a (...) Read more.

A total of EUR 15.1 million in EU funding available for two new EMFAF Calls Today the European Commission launched two new calls for proposals under the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) with EU funding of EUR 15.1 (...) Read more.

Interested in joining together with other regions and quadruple helix actors to explore new interregional value chains? Find that your smart specialisation priorities are not covered in an existing partnership? We welcome you to apply to the Call for Expression (...) Read more.

The European Commission launched a new website on EU Fishing Authorisations. Users can now search for data on fishing authorisations that have been granted during the last 10 years for EU vessels fishing outside EU waters and for non-EU vessels (...) Read more.

The subject of this call for tenders is the development and testing of tools (software and maps) that will contribute to the assessment of the feasibility and the impact of scaling-up of EU cultivation of shellfish and algae. The general (...) Read more.

WHO IS THIS CALL FOR? If you are an expert on Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) in the Mediterranean, this call might be of interest for you and open up great opportunities for exchange and cooperation with peers. The European Commission (...) Read more.

The Implementation Plan for the Black Sea Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) was launched on May 4th during a dedicated conference in the European Parliament, hosted by MEP Marian-Jean Marinescu. The event featured the participation of the European Commission, EU and (...) Read more.

The EU Mission ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters’ is going at full sail. Since its launch in September 2021, it has put in place 4 lighthouses in major basins, selected 38 multinational projects for funding and counts with over 400 (...) Read more.

Projects can be linked to port logistics, water treatment, nautical activity, sustainable tourism, biotechnology, blue energy or design. Headed by Barcelona Activa, Port de Barcelona and Costa Cruceros, the business programme also enjoys the collaboration of the UPC, Seastainable Ventures, Barcelona (...) Read more.

MedBAN is deploying two simultaneous but separate open calls for EU Blue Economy SMEs, awarding financial support that will fund two different sets of services: one for innovation, training and twin transformation of businesses and one for internationalisation actions.  The services will be provided by a bank of (...) Read more.

We invite all stakeholders in the Western Mediterranean Blue Economy to apply for the WestMED Project Awards 2023.This international project competition aims to showcase and honour outstanding success stories, which provide innovative and replicable solutions embodying the WestMED initiative’s vision (...) Read more.

As a part of the European Blue Forum, we are creating Europe’s Blue community. A community of different users of the sea, passionate and committed to working together to deliver bold and ambitious change to our shared challenges of nature (...) Read more.

The UfM webinar on Financing Innovation Ecosystems for the Mediterranean Sustainable Blue Economy, taking place on January 30, 2023, from 10h30 to 12h30 CET. It will be hosted by the Co-Presidency and Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean Innovation ecosystems – (...) Read more.

The main objective of this side event is to showcase food systems transformation processes and pathways in the Mediterranean, as a direct contribution to the UNFSS follow-up process. Echoing the global objectives and efforts of the One Planet Network’s SFS (...) Read more.

PREP4BLUE is running a spring/summer webinar series titled “Planning for Citizen Participation in Mission Ocean & Waters.” Over five one-hour sessions, participants will learn how to design a project, work package, or programme of activities in alignment with the citizen engagement (...) Read more.

As one of the consortium partners of the ‘MSP4Bio’ project which stands for - Improved Science-Based Maritime Spatial Planning to Safeguard and Restore Biodiversity in a Coherent European MPA Network, PAP/RAC representatives took part in the 2ndGeneral Assembly meeting on (...) Read more.

What is the European Blue Forum? The European Blue Forum is intended to be a pan-European Stakeholder group, able to come together to discuss shared challenges and priorities over the medium term with the aim of finding consensus, synergies and (...) Read more.

The EU Aquaculture Assistance Mechanism (AAM) aims to support the Member States, the aquaculture industry, and other relevant stakeholders, in the implementation of the 2021-2030 Strategic Guidelines for a more sustainable and competitive EU aquaculture, through the provision of logistic, (...) Read more.

Background on the call The European Commission supports regions and Member States to comply with the fulfilment criteria and successfully implement their Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3) through the newly launched S3 Community of Practice (S3 CoP). S3 CoP is the (...) Read more.

The UfM took part in Barcelona REACT 2023 Economic Reactivation Days, organized by the Barcelona City Council since 2021. REACT is the meeting point for Barcelona’s economic sectors, bringing together experts, and local, national and international leaders, to reflect on the next (...) Read more.

The Programmes will introduce the Coordination Mechanism on May 4th 2023, in Florence, during its kick-off event “Towards a more sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean”. The conference will be the occasion to present a synthesis of the work carried out (...) Read more.

Three years after the start of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), a global conference will bring together the Ocean Decade community and partners to celebrate achievements and set joint priorities for the future of the Decade. (...) Read more.

The subject of this call for tenders is a Multiple Framework Contract in cascade for the provision of scientific advice in support of the Common Fisheries Policy implementation in the EU waters. The available budget is EUR 6 million. This framework (...) Read more.

On March 04th, global negotiations concluded on the landmark Treaty of the High Seas to protect the ocean, tackle environmental degradation, fight climate change, and prevent biodiversity loss. The new treaty will allow to establish large-scale marine protected areas on the high seas, (...) Read more.

Ocean conservation takes center stage at the Monaco Ocean Week. The need for a week of meetings, debates and mobilisation for the ocean was blatantly obvious: leading marine sector stakeholders need to share their key marine environment conversation findings and (...) Read more.

The world’s governments have finalized an historic agreement on protecting marine biodiversity in international waters — the treaty on Biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) — after nearly 10 years of negotiations. The new U.N. High Seas Treaty, as it (...) Read more.

Today, at the Our Ocean Conference in Panama, the EU is confirming its strong engagement for international ocean governance by announcing  39 commitments for action for the year 2023. These actions will be funded by €816.5 million. This is one of the biggest amounts (...) Read more.

20 multinational projects will receive over €117 million to contribute to the objectives of the EU Mission ‘Restore our Ocean and waters’: protect and restore biodiversity, cut pollution, support a sustainable blue economy. The projects gather 297 partners from 39 (...) Read more.

The European Maritime Day (EMD) 2023 is taking place again as a fully-fledged physical event, in Brest, France on 24-25 May 2023. As every year, this will not be the only action to celebrate our seas and oceans and the (...) Read more.

On February 21, the Commission presented a package of measures to improve the sustainability and resilience of the EU's fisheries and aquaculture sector. It includes four elements: Communication on the Energy Transition of the EU Fisheries and Aquaculture sector.Action Plan (...) Read more.

A dozen new Decade Actions have been officially endorsed by the Ocean Decade to strengthen the impact of co-designed and transformative science for ocean health and resilience. Seven of the newly endorsed Decade Actions are innovative postdoctoral research projects with (...) Read more.

26 million tons plastic wastes end up in oceans every year. Every single square mile of the world’s ocean surface polluted by plastic pieces has disastrous consequences for global environment, health and wildlife. To tackle the global plastic pollution crisis, (...) Read more.

The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership is a Horizon Europe co-funded partnership. It constitutes a network of 60 Partner institutions from 25 countries and the European Commission that enables an unprecedent effort to pool research and innovation investments and align national (...) Read more.

Plastic accounts for 80% of the marine litter dispersed in the marine and coastal environment: of the over 90,000 objects collected on the beaches and analyzed using scientific protocols, harmonized among the different project partners, 17,000 (around 20%) were cigarette (...) Read more.

The Commission has adopted a report on the outcomes of the Western Mediterranean (WestMED) initiative which has been in place for 5 years. Since 2017, five EU Member States: France, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Malta, and five southern partner countries: (...) Read more.

Check out the leaflets and full reports "Towards a Sustainable Blue Economy in the Mediterranean region" prepared by the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM). Leaflets in English, French and Arabic.Full Reports in English, French and Arabic.

Development dynamics and trends in the Mediterranean, as in the rest of the world, have suffered a severe slowdown since 2020. In many cases, they have taken the form of a sharp reversal following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic (...) Read more.

On January 25, the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet), supported by the European Commission, launched its fully unified marine data service, integrating all the data into one single portal. Rapid access to reliable and accurate data and information is (...) Read more.

On January 25, the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet), supported by the European Commission, launched its fully unified marine data service, integrating all the data into one single portal. Rapid access to reliable and accurate data and information is (...) Read more.

In the past 4 years (2018-2022), the WestMED Assistance Mechanism has accomplished a lot to be proud of. It helped secure 50 million euros in funding alone for all kinds of different projects that contribute to the WestMED Initiative’s main (...) Read more.

Maritime  Spatial Planning (MSP) is a fundamental tool for the development of a  Sustainable Blue Economy. It allows us to manage the use of our seas and oceans  in a long term, inclusive and innovative way, to reduce conflicts between  (...) Read more.

Dear Mediterranean Blue Economy Stakeholder Platform Community,We are delighted to bring you our February newsletter (https://ecoscopium.eu/files/Ecoscope_Newsletter_Issue_February_2023_V1.0.pdf). We hope you will enjoy reading it and forward on to your colleagues.In this issue:EditorialParadigm shift from anthropocentric to ecocentric fisheries managementAthanassios C. TsiklirasThe EcoScope (...) Read more.

You are invited to take part in this survey of the training, resources, and expertise currently required to support marine and freshwater stakeholders that work in citizen engagement around Europe. Please read this information sheet carefully and answer the questions (...) Read more.

12th UfM Working Group on Blue Economy and Back-to-back Capacity building on project development associated to EU funding programs (‘Access EU funding for your Blue Economy project: Training session on project proposal development’) // 24-25 October, 2022 (Aqaba, Jordan and (...) Read more.

The 2nd Edition of the Day of the Mediterranean will be celebrated on November 28th 2022. The Day of the Mediterranean aims to create an annual unique momentum to provide visibility to the positive cooperation stories in the region. This (...) Read more.

In the framework of COP27, the Side Event on ‘Sustainable Blue Economy in the Mediterranean – A rising tide which lifts all boats’ is taking place in Sharm El-Sheikh on 6-18 November. This Side Event will bring together an exemplary (...) Read more.

The General Assembly meeting of the CPMR took place on 28-29 October in Agios Nikolaos, hosted by the Region of Crete (Greece). As a warm up, the CPMR organised on 25 of October, together with the Region of Crete and (...) Read more.

The 4th edition of the MCAST Research and Innovation Expo will take place on the 15th and 16th of December 2022 at the MCAST Resource Centre Auditorium. The Expo aims to showcase research endeavours that are currently being carried out (...) Read more.

On November 12, for the first time, the EU and neighbouring countries in the Mediterranean agreed on the establishment of five fully-fledged multiannual management plans (MAPs) based on the principles of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). It is a key (...) Read more.

On November 23, the European Commission completed its proposal for the 2023 fishing opportunities in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, adopted on 14 October 2022.    It added the elements missing from the initial proposal, in particular, fishing opportunities (...) Read more.

On 28 October, the EU and Madagascar agreed on the text of a new sustainable fisheries partnership agreement (SFPA), together with its implementing protocol. This new agreement restores the partnership between the EU and Madagascar that had been interrupted in 2018, (...) Read more.

The World Ocean Council is partnering with the City and Port of Barcelona to develop the global Blue Economy hub, which will be based in Barcelona. In celebration of this new collaboration, the World Ocean Council (WOC) alongside its partners will join forces in hosting (...) Read more.

You are invited to submit a paper for possible inclusion in the next journal issue that will be released on March 2023. Blue Economy is a journal that encourages interdisciplinary research in form of Original Studies, Reviews, Rapid Communications, and (...) Read more.

The European Maritime Day (EMD) 2023 is taking place again as a fully-fledged physical event, in Brest, France on 24-25 May 2023. As every year, this will not be the only action to celebrate our seas and oceans and the (...) Read more.

At the COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) announced the creation of the Blue Mediterranean Partnership, which aims to support the development (...) Read more.

The 2nd online Conference on “The Restoration of Mediterranean Wetlands: the Wetland-Based Solutions”, will be organized by the Union for the Mediterranean and MedWet on the 1st December 2022, 9.00-11.00 CET.  Registrations are still open. The Conference will be an excellent opportunity to highlight and (...) Read more.

Blue-up Barcelona is a support program for innovative startups in the framework of the blue economy, the sustainable maritme economy. The program aims to help startups validate their business model and provide the necessary resources through training, networking, mentoring, tailor-made (...) Read more.

June 2022, Barcelona. The 11th meeting of the UfM Working Group on Blue Economy took place in person at the Barcelona World Trade Center on June 21st , 2022, in the afternoon and back-to-back with the UfM Conference on Blue Finance ‘Investing in (...) Read more.

One of today’s most pressing challenges is safeguarding the loss of ecosystem biodiversity and functioning, while simultaneously allowing for exploitation by those who depend on their services, goods and benefits. In Europe, Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) is the main governance (...) Read more.

Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt – 6 to 18 November 2022 – For the first time in COP’s history, the 27th edition will host a Mediterranean Pavilion. The initiative is conceived to highlight both the urgent challenges the region is currently facing, and the innovative (...) Read more.

On the 29th and 30th of September, the final event of the Blue Growth Community project, entitled “Sustainable Blue Economy in the Mediterranean” was celebrated in the city of Lisbon, Portugal, more precisely, in the Belem district. The conference brought (...) Read more.

The Advanced Master in Sustainable Blue Economy is jointly organised by the University of Triesteand the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics - OGS. The Master is addressed to researchers, scientists and managers and aims to support the creation (...) Read more.

The European Commission has launched the “Blue careers for a sustainable blue economy” call for proposals under the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF). With a budget of EUR 7.5 million, this call aims to contribute to the development (...) Read more.

The Co-Presidency and Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean have the pleasure of inviting you to participate in an online capacity-building / training session on project development associated to EU funding programs (‘Access EU funding for your Blue Economy (...) Read more.

On October 14th, the European Commission adopted its proposal for fishing opportunities for 2023 for the Mediterranean and the Black Seas. The proposal promotes the sustainable management of fish stocks in the Mediterranean and the Black Seas and delivers on (...) Read more.

The Interreg Euro-MED Programme in collaboration with the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and WestMed Initiative is organising a joint information session “How to be part of Interreg Euro-MED? “. The meeting will be the occasion for WestMed and UfM stakeholders to discover how they can participate in (...) Read more.

The European Commission has released a new interactive website to explore the five EU Missions including the EU Mission Restore our Oceans & Waters (Mission Ocean). The new website includes different tools like videos and notices about the projects related (...) Read more.

In the framework of the UNECE Environment Conference on 'Circular economy, Sustainable Tourism and Education for Sustainable Development’(Cyprus, 1-5 October), the UfM together with CPMR-IMC and with the participation of the World Tourism Organization, is organizing a Side Event on (...) Read more.

In the framework of COP27, and with the participation of a wide range of Mediterranean Sustainable Blue Economy (SBE) actors and stakeholders, the UfM is organizing a Side Event on the Sustainable Blue Economy in the Mediterranean ‘A rising tide (...) Read more.

22 June, 9:00 – 18:00h, World Trade Center, Barcelona – The UfM Blue Finance Conference took place on the 22nd of June, 2022, at World Trade Center in Barcelona.  The goal of the Conference was to encourage investments in- and funding of- Sustainable (...) Read more.

At its flagship internationalisation workshop in Malta on 13/14th September 2022, the MED programme SHAREMED strategic project presented the framework guidelines and proposed actions to organize and synergize the cross-sectoral and cross-border articulation of a marine observation system of systems (...) Read more.

  Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt – 6 to 18 November 2022 – For the first time in COP’s history, the 27th edition will host a Mediterranean Pavilion. The initiative is conceived to highlight both the urgent challenges the region is currently facing, and (...) Read more.

DG MARE is seeking algae’s industry stakeholders to support the algae sector in the next three years. You will have the opportunity to join the EU4Algae platform several working groups. The different working groups are: Macroalgae Production Microalgae Production Algae (...) Read more.

This survey has been developed as part of the project Cities and Regions for a Blue Economy of the OECD Water Governance Programme within the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE). The project advocates for a localised approach to the blue economy (...) Read more.

The SHAREMED project is actively assessing and addressing common and emerging challenges on trans-boundary marine environmental threats and pollution in the Mediterranean, and the shared, effective observing systems needed to monitor them and support informed decisions and actions. This effort (...) Read more.

Save the Date for the final conference of the MSPMED Project, which will take place on the 13th and 14th of October 2022 and will be held at National Research Council CNR in Rome. The conference will present the outcomes and results (...) Read more.

SAVE THE DATE for the Info Day on Blue careers and Regional flagships calls for proposals! An Info Day about two new calls for proposals under the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) takes place on 24 November 2022. (...) Read more.

On June 21st, the MedSea4Fish programme was officially launched with the endorsement of the guiding document by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Fisheries (SAC) of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM). An important deliverable of the GFCM 2030 (...) Read more.

Applications are officially open for the "Call For Innovation - Lo sport nella blue economy", the new initiative dedicated to start-ups and SMEs developing innovative solutions in the field of marine sustainability and water sports. The call is promoted by (...) Read more.

The Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture voted on the Commission’s proposal to close vulnerable areas to fishing gears which touch the seabed. This proposal aims to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) in deep waters and the Member States’ support brings (...) Read more.

The Learning Programme #05 “Fostering and managing blue growth potential in the Mediterranean” continues to build capacity on blue economy! More than 100 students have been enrolled to the course and are gaining new knowledge and skills.   Due to this (...) Read more.

Following the adoption of the Partnership Agreement 2021-2027 with France, the Commission has adopted the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) Programme for France, to implement the EU common fisheries policy (CFP) and EU policy priorities outlined in the (...) Read more.

Today, the European Commission and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy unveiled the renewed EU agenda on International Ocean Governance (IOG), proposing actions for a secure, clean and sustainably managed ocean. With this (...) Read more.

Deadline: 22 September 2022 at 17:00 CEST EMFAF call for proposals aims to increase the participation of women in the different sectors of the Blue Economy and contribute to a more gender equal society. There is a budget of €2.5 (...) Read more.

The report "Towards a sustainable development of marine renewable energies in the Mediterranean" has been published in the framework of the Interreg Med blue growth community, led by Plan Bleu. It provides an overview of the development of marine renewable (...) Read more.

The 2014 EU maritime security strategy and its revised action plan (2018) still remain valid. However, an assessment showed they should be aligned with other major EU policies and instruments, including the EU’s ‘Strategic Compass’, and should address the evolving (...) Read more.

PANORAMA – Solutions for a Healthy Planet is a partnership initiative to document and promote examples of inspiring, replicable solutions across a range of conservation and sustainable development topics, enabling cross-sectoral learning and inspiration.  PANORAMA allows practitioners to share and reflect (...) Read more.

The 10th Meeting of the UfM Working Group on Blue Economy took place in person in Brussels and online, on 23 March 2022. The meeting aimed at:i) Presenting and exchanging on the draft Roadmap for the implementation of the UfM (...) Read more.

BlueFIN 22 is the annual Global Blue Finance Summit hosted by World Ocean Council. The Summit, hosted by World Ocean Council, will take place October 19 in Barcelona, Spain — the new headquarters for WOC. BlueFIN 22 will convene a broad (...) Read more.

Blue Invest Africa 2022 The event results from a partnership between the European Union and this African country that has put the blue economy at the core of its development. This event will be in line with the principles of EU-Africa cooperation, as (...) Read more.

Ministers from the 42 Member countries of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) gathered today in Cairo at the 2nd UfM Ministerial Conference on Environment and Climate action under the Co-Presidency of Jordan and the European Union. They agreed on a common (...) Read more.

The webinar “MARINE RENEWABLE ENERGIES: Fast-Advancing Technologies And Promising Opportunities”, organized by Union for the Mediterranean and EMUNI took place on Wednesday, 17th of November 2021. Building on the most recent findings of a comprehensive UfM report and through selected presentations and (...) Read more.

The 2021 UfM Ministerial Declaration on Sustainable Blue Economy submitted as a Commitment from Euro-Mediterranean countries in the context of the 7th Our Ocean Summit held in Palau The UfM Ministerial Declaration on Sustainable Blue Economy adopted on February 2nd, (...) Read more.

The Commission has adopted a renewed strategy for the most remote parts of the EU, known as outermost regions, to unlock their potential through appropriate investment and reforms. The EU outermost regions - Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte, Réunion and (...) Read more.

Following up on the 2021 UfM Ministerial Declaration on Sustainable Blue Economy and on the ten priorities agreed upon by the countries, this UfM Conference will bring together financial institutions, banks, private investors, and UfM country and industry representatives to (...) Read more.

The new edition of the WestMED Hackathons on project development will take place on 30 June 2022 under the Maltese and Libyan Co-Presidency of the WestMED Initiative. Please mark this date on your calendars! This event will also mark the (...) Read more.

The EU Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030”, a large-scale, “Appollo-11 style” push to protect and restore the health of our ocean and waters, has just launched a second wave of actions. Its aim is to achieve healthy (...) Read more.

The European Commission has published a report on the implementation of the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive, which sets the obligation for the 22 coastal Member States to establish maritime spatial plans by 31 March 2021 at the latest. While the (...) Read more.

Virtual Blue Career Center (VBCC) is a digital platform designed to attract young people but also experienced workers to fill existing skill gaps by supporting activities that will increase awareness of the workforce and employability in key Blue Growth services. (...) Read more.

On 1 June 2022 the Commission published its Communication “Towards more sustainable fishing in the EU: state of play and orientations for 2023” giving an annual review of EU's fisheries management and outlining priorities ahead for 2023. The figures, as (...) Read more.

BRIDGE-BS will conduct a range of educational and capacity-building activities in order to upskill and ensure the understanding of the challenges and opportunities to be addressed for a sustainable Blue Economy across the Black Sea, . With this aim, a (...) Read more.

The Learning Program “Fostering and Managing Blue Growth Potential in the Mediterranean” is offering the opportunity to gain fundamental theoretical knowledge on the main thematic areas of blue economy and to explore best practices, tools and achievements through the valuable (...) Read more.

The new observatory will help put the EU on the path towards a sustainable, carbon-neutral and circular blue economy. On May 19th, the European Commission launched the EU Blue Economy Observatory, a new knowledge dissemination platform for the sustainability of our (...) Read more.

On May 12th, the WestMED Initiative (Malta) in collaboration with the Malta Maritime Forum organised an event entitled “Blue Skills: Bridging the Skills Gap through Education and Ocean Literacy”. The event was successful in bringing together the views of the (...) Read more.

The Euro-Mediterranean University received a prestigious award and project funding by the Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Actions for its proposal to establish a Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Blue Economy. The Centre’s purpose is to foster interactions in the knowledge triangle (...) Read more.

The first call for governance projects will be open from Thursday 24th February 2022 at noon (Brussels time) to Tuesday 24th May 2022 at noon (Brussels time). It is targeted to the third priority of the Programme “Mediterranean Governance “, Specific Objective (SO) 6.6. “Other (...) Read more.

Are you between 18 and 35 years old and have experience or strong interest in bioeconomy and/or bioeconomy related fields (food systems, forestry, climate change…)?  Would you like to contribute to the sustainable and circular transition of Europe? Apply by 13 June (...) Read more.

Working together to co-organise a hybrid event in Barcelona, three cooperation projects from the Mediterranean area promoted the importance of the emerging field of Circular Blue Economy to address cross-border environmental and social challenges related to the maritime sectors. On (...) Read more.

The European Commission has published a report on the implementation of the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive, which sets the obligation for the 22 coastal Member States to establish maritime spatial plans by 31 March 2021 at the latest. While the (...) Read more.

The EU4ocean booth and exhibition space will have many interactive activities organised by the coalition’s members. During the European Maritime Day (EMD), the hybrid Ocean Literacy EU4Ocean Summit  will showcase and award the most successful initiatives, collaborations and actions of the EU4Ocean Platform, (...) Read more.

In the context of the ‘‘European Green Deal”, the European Commission adopted a comprehensive Farm to Fork Strategy, which recognises the strong links between healthy people, healthy societies and a healthy planet and aims to address comprehensively the challenges of (...) Read more.

Today, at the Our Ocean Conference (OOC) in Palau, the EU has renewed its pledges towards international Ocean governance. Presenting a list of 44 commitments for the 2020-2022 period for an amount of almost €1 billion, the EU has brought (...) Read more.

In partnership with Plan Bleu and as part of its MED2050 prospective study, the CIHEAM is mobilizing its students and ALUMNI to imagine the future of the Mediterranean! Since Wednesday 10 march, the CIHEAM has been questioning its students about (...) Read more.

On 29 March 2022 over one hundred participants from seventeen countries, representing stakeholders from education, industry and policy, attended the MATES hybrid Final Conference. The full presentations and recording of the event are available below. The overall messages of the conference have also (...) Read more.

The main objective of the Euro-MED Programme 2021-27  is  contributing to the transition towards a climate-neutral and resilient society: fighting against global challenges that negatively impact Mediterranean resources, while ensuring a sustainable growth and the well-being of its citizens. This (...) Read more.

JOIN THE 2022 CAMPAIGN TRAIL Visit the WestMED Initiative event in your country. The ‘WestMED in my country’ campaign is a series of events to bring the initiative close to (your) home. It consists of 9 in-person events in all (...) Read more.

Side events will be organized in the margins of the official meetings of the 2022 UN Ocean Conference (27 June - 1 July). A call was opened to submit an in-person or virtual side event via this link. The deadline (...) Read more.

We are pleased to bring to your attention relevant information regarding 12 open Horizon Europe calls related to the EU Mission Restore Our Ocean and Waters, launched under the EU’s programming period 2021-2027 : Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters (...) Read more.

On 7 February 2022 together with the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) and the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD), STEERER organised the workshop “Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation delivering smart, green, safe and competitive waterborne (...) Read more.

At the BlueInvest Days 2022 in Brussels, Commissioner Virginius Sinkevičius and European Investment Fund (EIF) Deputy Chief Executive, Roger Havenith have announced a new dedicated equity initiative for the blue economy under InvestEU. The initiative will mobilise an additional €500 (...) Read more.

The third OIC Call for Proposals was launched on 10 February 2022 and closes on 09 April 2022, 23:59 CET. From plastics and nutrient pollution to overfishing to climate change, two-thirds of the global ocean is considered to have been negatively impacted (...) Read more.

The European Commission has published recommendations for EU Member States to improve their national marine strategies. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires EU Member States to submit national marine strategies with a view to achieving “Good Environmental Status” of EU marine (...) Read more.

SECOND CALL IS NOW OPEN SHAREMED partners are again offering this innovative initiative for practical marine research collaboration activities with Mediterranean institutions. This is a unique opportunity to boost your research by taking one or more offers that are presented (...) Read more.

The targeted consultations asking stakeholders to contribute to the upcoming reports on the functioning of the common fisheries policy (CFP) and the common market organisation (CMO) are still in progress! All stakeholders, including the fishing industry, non-governmental organisations, academic, scientific, social and economic partners (...) Read more.

The European Commission, the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) and a consortium of sustainability consultants and algae organisations are launching a European algae stakeholder platform, called EU4Algae. The aim of the platform is to accelerate the development (...) Read more.

The UfM is once again proud to support the ARLEM Award for Young Local Entrepreneurship in the Mediterranean. Registration is now open for the 2022 prize for entrepreneurial enterprises boosting local communities in the Southern Mediterranean, awarded by the Euro-Mediterranean (...) Read more.

The MED Sustainable Tourism Days, organized by the CPMR Intermediterranean Commission (IMC) in collaboration with the BEST MED and DestiMED PLUS projects over the 14th and 17th December 2021, proposed a wide set of events to discuss recent experience and future perspectives on sustainable tourism in (...) Read more.

The Blue Growth Community organizes its mid-term conference, entitled “Med Blue Economy in Action: Blue Business Tools for SMEs”, in the framework of the MedaWeek Barcelona 2021. On 18th November 2021, the Blue Growth Community organized its mid-term conference, in the (...) Read more.

The Mediterranean Innovation Alliance for Sustainable Blue Economy is an initiative of the BLUEBIOMED Interreg MED strategic project, it was launched as the outcome of a two-day physical event, the Blue Bioeconomy Innovation Forum, held on 18th & 19th of November in Ferrara, in (...) Read more.

This online guide highlights the wide range of funding programmes financed by the new budget, multiannual financial framework 2021-2027, and Next Generation EU. With these resources and this guide, we're supporting the move towards a more digital, sustainable and inclusive (...) Read more.

The Mediterranean has lost more than 50% of its natural wetlands since 1970, and we continue to destroy them through poorly planned development and agricultural water abstraction. As climate change and population growth continue, saving and restoring what remains of (...) Read more.

The Mediterranean Wetlands Initiative (MedWet) is a regional intergovernmental network operating within the framework of the Ramsar Convention and involving also other key actors, dedicated to promoting and supporting multi-stakeholder’ policies and actions on the ground for the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of Mediterranean (...) Read more.

EMD 2022, the annual EU meeting point on maritime affairs and sustainable blue growth, and the place where ‘Ocean Leaders Meet’, will take place in Ravenna, Italy on 19 & 20 May 2022. As every year, this will not be (...) Read more.

Great news from the world of ocean literacy: as of the 1st February, the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO will launch a partnership in support of the EU4Ocean coalition, the EU-wide ocean literacy initiative set (...) Read more.

When: 2 February 2022 Where: Worldwide events. Add event. World Wetlands Day, celebrated annually on 2 February, aims to raise global awareness about the vital role of wetlands for people and planet. This day also marks the date of the adoption of the Convention (...) Read more.

Objective: The objective of this call for proposals is to facilitate the implementation of Maritime Spatial Planning in the EU, including through the effective application of Directive 2014/89 establishing a framework for MSP. This call is intended to fund projects (...) Read more.

The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the situation as the use of single-use plastics such as gloves and masks has increased, threatening to stall and even reverse the progress achieved, as single plastic accounts for up to 50% of beach litter.The (...) Read more.

In the initiative 'Setting the course of a sustainable blue planet, and update of the international ocean governance agenda', the EU aims to boost transformative action to achieve effective and integrated ocean governance built on strong partnerships, international cooperation and multilateral (...) Read more.

November 18th, 2021, the Blue Growth Community organized its mid-term conference under the framework of the 4th edition of the Mediterranean Week of Economic Leaders (MedaWeek Barcelona). MedaWeek is one of the most iconic economic conferences for the Mediterranean business (...) Read more.

The Commission has adopted an amendment to the Horizon Europe work programme for 2021-2022, increasing the total budget to €15.4 billion: that is an increase of €723 million compared to the original budget of €14.7 billion. This new budget includes (...) Read more.

The European Commission launched a call for experts to join the five Mission Boards, with the role of advising on the implementation of the EU Missions. The five Mission Boards will have up to 15 independent top experts for each Mission For more (...) Read more.

Trainees work all over the European Commission, its services and agencies, mostly in Brussels, but also in Luxembourg and elsewhere across the European Union. The nature of the work will depend on the service you are assigned to, for example, the field (...) Read more.

The 3 winning teams – one for each proposed challenge, all concerning plastic pollution – of the Bluemed Hackathon, organised by BlueMed to develop ideas and solutions for a Healthy Plastic Free Mediterranean Sea, to promote sustainable blue growth and (...) Read more.

Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania and Spain under the framework of JPI Oceans and together with BANOS, BlueMed, NOAA and the UN Ocean Decade, are pleased to launch this call, with a deadline for proposals on 28 February (...) Read more.

The 22nd Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention and its Protocols (COP 22) took place on 7-10 December 2021 in Antalya, Turkey. COP 22 offered an inclusive platform for renewed commitment in the Mediterranean and sent a (...) Read more.

Today, EU Fisheries Ministers agreed fishing opportunities for 2022 for the Mediterranean and the Black Seas. European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius welcomed the agreement: Today we took an important step towards delivering on the political (...) Read more.

On December 7, took place the hybrid event “BLUE DEAL - Ask your citizen on Blue Energy”, where the results of a survey on citizen's perception of blue energy were presented. BLUEDEAL listened to the opinions of more than 2.000 (...) Read more.

Under the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF), a new €3.875 million call for proposals has been launched. The call will support “Flagship projects” (pilot strategic initiatives) that strengthen sea basin-level collaboration in the Atlantic, the Black Sea and the Western (...) Read more.

The MED Sustainable Tourism Days will take place from 14th to 17th December, online and partially in Rome. Different Interreg MED projects and different Euro-Mediterranean actors will join forces with the aim of contributing to a smarter and greener recovery (...) Read more.

  ORGANISED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION IN COLLABORATION WITH THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SEYCHELLES UNDER THE HIGH PATRONAGE OF H.E. WAVEL RAMKALAWAN, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SEYCHELLES Dates 15th - 16th March 2022 – BlueInvest Africa event 14th March 2022 – “Behind the Doors” event (for (...) Read more.

The Commission launched the Mission ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030’. This Mission, part of Horizon Europe, aims in the next decade to restore the health of one of our most precious common goods: our ocean and waters. It (...) Read more.

On 5 October 2021, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO)  and the European Commission organised the online final conference of their joint MSPglobal Initiative. The MSPglobal Initiative was designed to support – from November 2018 to October 2021 – (...) Read more.

The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) has adopted its new 2030 Strategy for the Mediterranean and Black Sea at the end of the 44th annual session on 6 November 2021. An agreement was also reached on an ambitious package of measures (...) Read more.

On November 9 2021, the 3rd WestMED Stakeholder Conference took place in Rome, Italy. Co-organised with the Italian ministry of Foreign affairs, this event attracted close to 300 registrations and featured 30 experts covering the latest policy, funding and sectoral (...) Read more.

The 22nd Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention and its Protocols (COP 22) will take place on 7-10 December 2021 in Antalya, Turkey. The meetings of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention and its protocols, held (...) Read more.

The BLUE BIO MED Interreg MED project is organising its firts Blue Bioeconomy Innovation Forum on 18 & 19 November 2021 at Sealogy Blue Economy Exhibition in Ferrara (Italy). This event is organised in collaboration with the following Interreg MED projects: PANORAMED, B-BLUE and the Blue (...) Read more.

The Mediterranean coastal city of Málaga (Spain) is the winner of the third edition (2020-2021) of the Istanbul Environment Friendly City Award. The Mayor of Málaga will receive the award at a ceremony scheduled on 9 December 2021 during the Ministerial (...) Read more.

OGS has just opened three postdoc positions for marine ecosystem modellers at the Ecological Modelling Group (ECHO).  The formal call is available at the website https://www.inogs.it/en/node/1799. The deadline for application is 12/12/2021.  A brief description of the three positions with summary of the (...) Read more.

 BACKGROUND Offshore wind is currently the most mature type of marine renewable energy in the Mediterranean region in terms of technology, policy frameworks, commercialization and installed capacity, particularly in the parts with the highest wind speed (Gulf of Lion, the (...) Read more.

The Seas, Rivers, Islands and Coastal Areas Intergroup (SEArica) event “Towards an EU Strategy for Sustainable Tourism: Building forward smarter and greener in the EU coastal & insular regions”, co-organized by the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR)  was held online on 1st (...) Read more.

On 18 June, the EC Ocean Observation event took place. This event was organised by the EC DG for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Maritime Innovation, Marine Knowledge and Investment, and co-organised by the EMODnet Secretariat, European Marine Board Secretariat, EuroGOOS and Copernicus Marine Service, in collaboration with the wider community. It (...) Read more.

A drastic reduction in unnecessary, avoidable and problematic plastic is crucial to addressing the global pollution crisis, according to a comprehensive assessment released today by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). An accelerated transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies, the (...) Read more.

SHAREMED partners are launching this innovative initiative for practical marine research collaboration activities with Mediterranean institutions. This is a unique opportunity to boost your research by taking one or more offers that are presented in this Call for Transnational On-Demand (...) Read more.

The MSPglobal International Guide on Maritime Spatial Planning was officially launched during the final conference of the joint IOC-UNESCO/DG MARE MSPglobal Initiative, which took place on Tuesday 5 October 2021. Jointly produced by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO and the European (...) Read more.

The Ocean Decade has endorsed ninety-four new Decade Actions across all ocean basins, building global momentum for ocean knowledge-based solutions ahead of major upcoming global summits on climate and biodiversity. To find out more, follow this link. The information is available (...) Read more.

Ten innovative EU projects to build ocean observation systems that provide input for evidence-based management of the ocean and the Blue Economy, have joined forces in the strong cluster ‘Nourishing Blue Economy and Sharing Ocean Knowledge’. Under the lead of (...) Read more.

As you probably know, a new edition of the WestMED Stakeholder Conference is approaching fast. It will take place on 9 November 2021 under the Italian and Libyan Co-Presidency of the WestMED Initiative. The Conference can be attended physically in (...) Read more.

The ambition of the Ocean Decade in relation to data, information and knowledge management includes significant enhancement of infrastructure, common approaches that enable interoperable data sharing and stewardship, and enhanced collaboration between data providers and users. This call for nominations (...) Read more.

Biological Diversity, Ecosystem Restoration and Food Systems Protecting and Restoring at the core of the shift towards Green, Blue, Circular Economy Side-event to the UfM Ministerial on Environment and Climate Action Organized by the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and (...) Read more.

On July 1st this year, CREDA and Reimagined Futuresorganised a workshop with Catalan stakeholders, aimed at identifying factors that could help address the challenge of macro-plastic pollution and recovery in the Mediterranean Sea. Later, on September 29th, stakeholders from all (...) Read more.

The European Commission launched today five new EU missions, a new and innovative way to work together and improve the lives of people in Europe and beyond. EU missions aim to tackle big challenges in health, climate and the environment, (...) Read more.

Biological Diversity, Ecosystem Restoration and Food Systems Protecting and Restoring at the core of the shift towards Green, Blue, Circular Economy Side-event to the UfM Ministerial on Environment and Climate Action Organized by the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and (...) Read more.

The webinar “Women in blue economy in the Mediterranean”, organized by Union for the Mediterranean and EMUNI took place on Wednesday, 22nd of September 2021. It highlighted women contribution and engagement as a fundamental vector in key blue economy sectors in (...) Read more.

As part of the Interreg MED 2014-20 “Blue Bio Med” strategic innovation project, CREDA is organising a series of online workshops on innovation around the sustainable development challenge of marine plastic pollution in the Mediterranean, with stakeholders from all over (...) Read more.

There will be 10 scholarships available thanks to the Intergovernamental Western Mediterranean Forum  (Dialogue 5+5) for research, innovation and higher education. Take your chance to be part of this unique experience! The Master The Advanced Master in Sustainable Blue Growth (...) Read more.

As part of the Interreg MED 2014-20 “Blue Bio Med” strategic innovation project, ART-ER is organising a series of online multi-stakeholder workshops on innovation in sustainable aquaculture. Mediterranean aquaculture is an increasingly important contributor to sea food production and to economic growth (...) Read more.

SwitchMed Connect is a gathering of Mediterranean stakeholders to build synergies, exchange knowledge, and scale up eco and social innovations. It hosts leading start-ups and entrepreneurs, industry agents, initiatives, change agents, policy and financial institutions working on applications of productive, (...) Read more.

With the financial support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the Union for the Mediterranean is leading the webinar on “Women and Blue Skills/Careers/Jobs in Lebanon”, scheduled to take place on Friday October 8th 2021, from 10:00 to 13:00 (...) Read more.

The Union for the Mediterranean is organizing the webinar on “Women in blue economy in the Mediterranean”, scheduled to take place on Wednesday, 22nd of September 2021, 9.30-12.30 CET.This webinar will be dedicated to highlighting women contribution and engagement as a fundamental (...) Read more.

The Blue Climate Initiative (BCI) is welcoming applications from innovators and entrepreneurs for the global $1 Million Ocean Innovation Prize. The Prize is designed to inspire, fund and support innovations that mitigate climate change through ocean-related strategies. You can apply (...) Read more.

The EU Strategy for Offshore Renewable Energy, published in November 2020, underpins the importance of creating a robust value chain for scaling up the deployment of offshore renewable energies and meeting the ambitious 2030 and 2050 targets. The European Commission (...) Read more.

Ocean Visions is now inviting applications from innovators around the world who plan to compete for the XPRIZE Carbon Removal using an ocean-based pathway. Deadline for applications September 24, 2021 Ocean Visions opened applications for its “Launchpad” to support competitors (...) Read more.

MSP in Europe: cooperating across borders and sectors for a smart, sustainable and fair use of the maritime space. A video presenting the work of five MSP projects supported by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (2014-2020). Watch the video (...) Read more.

The European Green Deal and the Recovery Plan for Europe will define the European economy for many years, or even decades. And the EU’s blue economy is fundamental to both efforts. Not only should the blue economy adhere, like every (...) Read more.

AquaDocs is the joint open access repository of the UNESCO/IOC InternationaI Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) and the International Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and Information Centers (IAMSLIC) with support from the FAO Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries (...) Read more.

We invite all stakeholders in the Western Mediterranean Blue Economy to apply for the 1st WestMED Project Awards 2021. This international project competition aims to showcase and honour outstanding success stories, which provide innovative and replicable solutions embodying the WestMED (...) Read more.

ClimateWorks Foundation and Ocean Visions have released a request for proposals (RFP) to help close key knowledge gaps to advance ocean-based carbon dioxide removal (CDR). Together they seek to award up to two, 18-month grants to evaluate the effectiveness and (...) Read more.

DigiCirc is looking for European SMEs/Start-ups that can use digital tools and apply cutting-edge solutions in the circular economy by addressing specific challenges in the domain of Blue Economy. With the second open call, DigiCirc will select a minimum of (...) Read more.

The MeerWissen Initiative has just launched Ocean InSight – a new podcast series on marine conservation and ocean science for sustainable development, with unique perspectives from those on the frontlines of research, policy and action. Join the initiative on a (...) Read more.

The Union for the Mediterranean is organizing the webinar on “Women in blue economy in the Mediterranean”, scheduled to take place on Wednesday, 22nd of September 2021, 9.30-12.30 CET. This webinar will be dedicated to highlighting women contribution and engagement (...) Read more.

Launched by Global Footprint Network, the Scottish EPA, and Schneider Electric, 100 Days of Possibility highlights actionable ways for each country, city, or business to ready themselves for the consequences of overshoot. These responses also #MoveTheDate of Earth Overshoot Day. (...) Read more.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Ocean Science Journalism (OSJ) Fellowship offers professional science writers, producers, and editors working for print, broadcast, radio, and digital media the residential experience at a leading ocean research institution. Created in 2000, the program is (...) Read more.

The Youth4Ocean Forum is launching a new call for project proposals, designed to promote the ideas of young change-makers in the Mediterranean Sea Region! All across the Mediterranean, we are looking for young people that either are or would like (...) Read more.

The European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD) is sponsoring merit-based awards for outstanding young scientists to conduct innovative research related to the International Ocean Discovery Program. The research may be directed toward the objectives of upcoming or past DSDP/ODP/IODP (...) Read more.

On Thursday 15 July 2021, EMB hosted its eleventh Science Lunch Webinar on the topic of 'Biological time series for science and marine status assessment'. The webinar was one hour long and took place from 13:00 - 14:00 CEST. The (...) Read more.

On Monday 13 and Tuesday 13 July 2021, the new Horizon 2020 project BRIDGE-BS kicked off online. EMB is participating in the project, which aims to enhance the science-based policy in the Black Sea region to develop blue growth while (...) Read more.

The Bluebio Cofund second additional call has been launched. The second additional call is targeted on Advancing Resource Management, Market and Socioeconomic aspects in the Blue Bioeconomy Value Chains The scope of the call is to fund projects that aim (...) Read more.

The COP26 Presidency Programme has been released. The presidency programme for COP26 will showcase momentum from the whole of society, and focus on key issues to drive ambition and action. Progressing the negotiations will be at the heart of the (...) Read more.

The call for expert nominations for the Ocean Decade advisory board has been launched. The Decade Advisory Board will be a multi-stakeholder advisory body that will assist the Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO in performing its (...) Read more.

A robust new strategy for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea The targets of the new 2030 Strategy of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) are in alignment with blue transformation, a pillar (...) Read more.

The back-to-back event organised by the Union for the Mediterranean together with WESTMED took place on the 9th June 2021. The webinar provided an analysis and insights on digitalization skills applied to aquaculture and tourism at Mediterranean level through case (...) Read more.

The Plastic Busters MPAs capitalization event: a stepping stone in consolidating marine litter management efforts in Mediterranean MPAs Plastic Busters MPAs brought together more than 90 Mediterranean MPA managers and marine litter experts at its 1st capitalization event held online (...) Read more.

The pilot project in the Western Mediterranean is being implemented in Algeria, France, Italy, Malta, Morocco, Spain and Tunisia, while other member countries of the Union for the Mediterranean in the Western Mediterranean can also participate in training activities. Building (...) Read more.

Lively discussions on tackling climate change in Mediterranean MPAs held at the MPA Engage capitalization conference On the 18th of June 2021, MIO-ECSDE organized the 1st MPA Engage capitalization event providing an opportunity for stakeholders to connect and share experiences (...) Read more.

This virtual event will provide a platform to bring together diverse stakeholders on priority issues for the Ocean Decade with the aim of encouraging collaborative actions. This first Laboratory will look into the key elements required to foster the change (...) Read more.

The Marine Institute is launching a Blue Carbon call under its Marine Research Programme. The Institute is seeking applications for a substantial programme of research to investigate further the potential of Ireland’s blue carbon resource to mitigate climate change; the (...) Read more.

Aligning marine conservation and development agendas The Ocean+ Habitats platform is relaunching at a crucial moment for ocean conservation. This year marks the beginning of several long-anticipated milestones in conservation policy, including the post-2020 global biodiversity framework and the UN (...) Read more.

Our world is in crisis. Climate change is accelerating, with monumental implications for nature and human societies. Addressing this global challenge will take unprecedented global collaboration. It will also take audacious creativity and entrepreneurship to think outside the box and (...) Read more.

The Blue Bioeconomy ERA-Net COFUND has released a new call on Unlocking the Potential of Aquatic Bioresources. The online submission tool is ready to use and the call announcement, guidelines and templates are available. All proposal information must be submitted (...) Read more.

In the context of global celebrations for World Oceans Day, UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission announced the first Actions officially endorsed as part of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, 2021-2030 (the ‘Ocean Decade’). “From restoring the (...) Read more.

Fact of the week! Did you know that barnacles hitchike on whales? You may already know that “about 97% of Earth's water is in the ocean”. But did you know that “a protein found in a jellyfish has contributed to (...) Read more.

Seaports are vital connecting hubs for international trade, port-related industry, and passenger travel. As such they influence urban spatial planning and development. They also attract thousands of employees who work on ships and onshore to operate various port- and industry-related (...) Read more.

Within the Blue Crowdfunding Interreg MED project (#BlueCrowdMED), the first campaigns are launched in Spain. Meet the participants and find out how the use of crowdfunding can boost blue economy in the Mediterranean region. A journalist, a professional on sustainable (...) Read more.

DigiCirc Blue Economy Open Call is now open to applications and will run from 2 June to 3 August 2021! In case you want to know more about the DigiCirc Blue Economy open call join the 1st live blue economy Q&A (...) Read more.

The 5th meeting of the UfM Task Force on Environment took place yesterday, bringing together country representatives and regional stakeholders of the UfM environment agenda. The virtual meeting was chaired by the UfM European and Jordan Co-Presidency, with the support (...) Read more.

Are you interested in the future of the blue economy for the sustainable development of the Black Sea Region? BSEC PERMIS, in conjunction with the World Bank and the Delphi Economic Forum, is staging an online panel discussion with the (...) Read more.

The European Commission has published the fourth edition of “The EU Blue Economy Report”, providing an overview of the performance of the EU-27 economic sectors related to oceans and the coastal environment.The sector directly employed close to 4.5 million people (...) Read more.

Who are we looking for? DigiCirc is looking for European SMEs/Start-ups that can use digital tools and apply cutting-edge solutions in the circular economy by addressing specific challenges in the domain of Blue Economy. How does it work? With the (...) Read more.

The 5th Task Force on Environment will be held online on 27 May 2021. The meeting aims at: Discussing with countries the priorities for action under the 2030 Greener Med Agenda, also in the light of the Covid developments and (...) Read more.

The European Commission is proposing a new approach for a sustainable blue economy in the EU for the industries and sectors related to oceans, seas and coasts.  A sustainable blue economy is essential to achieving the objectives of the European (...) Read more.

The webinar 'Digitalization skills in the aquaculture and tourism sectors in the Mediterranean region’ co-organized by the Union for the Mediterranean and WestMed will take place on the 9th of June from 9:00 to 13:00 (CET time).The digital transformation requires (...) Read more.

MEdIES runs week-long training courses on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) for formal and non-formal educators from European countries and beyond. The courses are eligible to be 100% funded by Erasmus plus Key Action 1 (KA1 learning mobility of individuals).The (...) Read more.

The “AM EU MSP Platform” – “MSP MED” joint webinar deals with the coexistence and synergetic relationship between economic, social, environmental, and cultural components of “spatial efficiency” at sea. Through case studies, the webinar will present different points of view (...) Read more.

In the frame of the Pilot Action on marine litter, BlueMed launches an Hackathon team challenge to develop ideas and solutions for a Healthy Plastic Free Mediterranean Sea, to promote sustainable blue growth and circular bioeconomy in the Mediterranean. The (...) Read more.

As part of the EU budget framework for the 2021-2027 period, the European Commission proposed in June 2018 a regulation to continue the fund dedicated to the Common Fisheries Policy and the Integrated Maritime Policy. On 4 April 2019, Parliament (...) Read more.

The Joint Monitoring Committee, decision-making body of the ENI CBC Med Programme, has approved 11 projects under the call for capitalisation projects out of the 69 proposals submitted. The selected projects, worth €11.5 million (of which €10.4 million as EU (...) Read more.

The EU taxonomy is a classification system, establishing a list of environmentally sustainable economic activities. The EU taxonomy is an important enabler to scale up sustainable investment and to implement the European Green Deal. A first delegated act on sustainable (...) Read more.

After the success of the first courses delivered by the MaRINET2 project consortium, the international project continues to roll out its training program in the offshore renewable energy sector. In collaboration with MaRINET2, WavEC Offshore Renewables, is organizing a course (...) Read more.

The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) suports the SwitchMed initiative to speed up the shift to sustainable consumption and production patterns in the Southern Mediterranean, notably through the promotion of circular economy approaches. This initiative also supports the implementation of (...) Read more.

FARNET has published its latest guide: "Nurturing Quality Projects".As FLAGs work on their local development strategies for the 2021-2027 period, many will focus on the ‘next step’ of CLLD implementation in their area, ensuring that good strategies transfer into meaningful (...) Read more.

Interreg Europe is looking for good practices for a policy brief on the hot topic of ocean plastic pollution which they are currently putting together. In recent years, the topic of ocean plastic pollution has been climbing high on the (...) Read more.

The Food Systems Summit Dialogue, which will be organize on the 27th of April from 14:00 to 17:30 (CEST), will be the first of two, aiming at advancing a common understanding of the complex environment of Sustainable Food Systems (SFS) (...) Read more.

Since 2017, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network Youth (SDSN Youth) has been annually producing the “Youth Solutions Report”, a flagship initiative managed by the Youth Solutions Program team. The Report features 50 game-changing projects led by young people, allowing (...) Read more.

A Call for Grants for small-scale fishers in the Mediterranean has been launched by WWF today. The Grants are a way for WWF to support small-scale fisheries on their path towards sustainability by accelerating the use of funding available from (...) Read more.

Last 26 of October, the recently released Study on Tourism in the Mediterranean was presented to the Intermediterranean Commission General Assembly, in which representatives from the European Commission and Parliament – Ms Anna Athanasopoulou (DG GROW) and Ms Josianne Cutajar (...) Read more.

BLUEBIOMED is one of the two Interreg MED Innovation Strategic Projects funded under Axis 4 (Governance) that promotes the transformation of the Mediterranean Blue Bioeconomy field towards sustainable development through innovation. It supports better governance of innovation policies bridging the (...) Read more.

A new report titled "30 by 30: Scenarios to recover biodiversity and rebuild fish stocks in the Mediterranean" by WWF sheds new light on the importance of conservation and advocates for bolder action to ensure that 30 per cent of (...) Read more.

On 10 March 2021 the Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea (REMPEC), a UNEP/MAP Regional Activity Centre jointly administered with IMO, convened the Regional Meeting of National Experts on the Mediterranean Strategy for the Prevention of, (...) Read more.

The JERICO-S3 Research Infrastructure announceS the 2nd call of 3 Transnational Access funding calls to support a wide range of marine researchers by giving free of charge access to high-quality infrastructures and support services at unique multi-disciplinary sites consisting of (...) Read more.

This April, ICOE 2021 is bringing more than 80 speakers from 14 countries to present their expertise and lessons learned from around the world in the marine energy field. These 22 sessions are organized into 3 tracks: Keynote/Plenary, Industry/Markets and (...) Read more.

Norwegian floating solar specialist Ocean Sun has signed an agreement with MP Quantum Group (MP) to develop floating solar projects in Greece and the Republic of Cyprus.The license agreement allows MP to develop floating solar projects in the region using (...) Read more.

The 5th Call for Modular Projects call, targeted to the transfer or mainstreaming of shortlisted outputs of finalised Interreg MED projects, is currently open! The indicative financial allocation for this call is about 4.6M€ (ERDF + IPA + national co-financing). (...) Read more.

Mainstreaming is gaining more and more recognition as a key process in the context of policymaking, and especially in Interreg programmes, as an effective tool to give further visibility to cooperation results and outcomes. Since 2018, PANORAMED has supported six (...) Read more.

In December 2019, Israel approved the "Marine Spatial Planning for Israel’s Mediterranean Waters". The MSP is the product of long and complex planning process, led by the Israeli Planning Administration in cooperation with the EU. The policy was prepared by (...) Read more.

Organized by GGGI, Youth Climate Lab, and Student Energy, Greenpreneurs is a 12-week virtual incubator supporting young people to develop social enterprise solutions to address sustainability and climate change issues in their communities!Teams of young people between the ages of (...) Read more.

The SUMMIT4OCEANS Sevilla Blue Economy Virtual Event aims to involve and sensitize Companies, Governments, Administrations and Citizens in the Blue Economy, in short, the whole of society, and Seville and its area of influence.The initiative, co-organized by Fibes Sevilla, is (...) Read more.

Sustainable development underpinned by blue economy is a shared vision for the Euro-Mediterranean area and is of concern to both North and South-Mediterranean countries. The vision of sustainable blue economy is based on the recognition of both the vulnerabilities of (...) Read more.

In summer 2020, EMB launched a survey to its member organizations to find out how the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns had affected their research and teaching activities. To find out how the situation had changed, an updated survey was launched (...) Read more.

For the cruise TAlPro2022 (funded by the Eurofleets+ project and the Mediterranean Science Commission CIESM) a call to accommodate 1-2 scientists that are interested in taking complementary measurements has been issued. Those data can then benefit from the fact that (...) Read more.

With the implementation of the new long-term EU budget, some EASME managed programme are moving to the new European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA).  From 1 April, the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), the Life Programme, Horizon (...) Read more.

The EU Biotech industry has an estimated annual revenue of €15 billion while the Blue Biotechnology sector`s higher-end revenue generation is estimated to be around €754 million. An estimated annual compound growth rate of Blue Biotechnology of 6-8% in 5 (...) Read more.

The EIB Blue Sustainable Ocean Strategy (“Blue SOS”) aims to improve the health of oceans, build stronger coastal environments and boost blue sustainable economic activity.To achieve this, we commit to double our lending to sustainable ocean projects to €2.5 billion (...) Read more.

All the recordings and materials of the BlueMed CSA Final conference sessions are now out and available on the BlueMed website.You can also find all the videos in the devoted playlist on the BlueMed YouTube channel.

With the European Union stepping up efforts to address overfishing in the Mediterranean, the latest episode of Ocean visits the Fisheries Restricted Area (FRA) of Jabuka/Pomo Pit, a success story in the Adriatic established to protect essential fish habitats.Euronews joins (...) Read more.

The European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) ensures uniform and effective application of the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy by organizing operational coordination of fisheries control and inspection activities by the Member States and to assist them to cooperate. EFCA (...) Read more.

Are you looking to bolster your skills for working on a research icebreaker? The online technical training series organized by the Arctic Research Icebreaker Consortium and the Association of Early Polar Career Scientists may be what you are looking for! (...) Read more.

The European Commission is preparing a comprehensive cross-sectoral EU algae initiative. The aim of the initiative is to increase the sustainable production, consumption and use of algae and algae-based products. Because of their small carbon and environmental footprint, raising the (...) Read more.

EMD In My Country is an important part of the wave of ocean awareness and activism that has been rising steadily in recent years, and the events under its brand have become more and more popular, attracting more than 25,000 (...) Read more.

DigiCirc (@DigiCirc) is an #H2020 #I INNOSUP project that aims to boost the #circulareconomy using digital tools by supporting innovative #SMEs in the development and marketing of solutions based on circular value chains through 3 acceleration programs on the following (...) Read more.

Eco Wave Power has secured the engineering coordination permit for the installation of ten floaters for the ‘EWP-EDF One’ wave energy project in the Port of Jaffa in Israel.The permit, granted by the Municipality of Tel-Aviv Jaffa, allows Eco Wave (...) Read more.

BlueCrowdMED is a call for small and medium-sized companies, cooperatives, social entrepreneurs, civil society organizations and NGOs of the Spanish Mediterranean regions who wish to learn how to carry out successful crowdfunding campaigns to develop projects with social impact in (...) Read more.

Even in a year as challenging as 2020, ocean energy devices hit the water, significant investments deals were signed, and new manufacturing facilities launched. According to statistics released today by Ocean Energy Europe, tidal and wave energy devices were installed (...) Read more.

The MedSkippers project is organizing two free webinars on Environmental Impact Reduction (splitted in two parts) and Ocean Literacy. They are mainly adressed to professional skippers in order to help them upgrade their knowledge and drive excellence, across nautical charter (...) Read more.

The first meeting of BLUEBIOMED’s Sounding Board, that took place online on Monday 15 February 2021, brought together representatives of key Mediterranean governance frameworks and initiatives. It sought to reflect on the way to scale up BLUE BIO MED’s and (...) Read more.

Santander for the Seas is the first call for proposals developed by Fundación Banco Santander with the aim of supporting projects aimed at the conservation and recovery of habitats and unique species in the seas and oceans. A maximum of (...) Read more.

The 16th of February 2021, the journal Frontiers in Marine Sciences published the research study entitled "Current Status of the Algae Production Industry in Europe: An Emerging Sector of the Blue Bioeconomy". The study presents and analyses the results of (...) Read more.

Twenty-five years ago the European Union and the Southern Mediterranean partners committed to turning the Mediterranean basin into an area of dialogue, exchange and cooperation, guaranteeing peace, stability and prosperity. The 25th anniversary of the Barcelona Declaration reminds us that (...) Read more.

The European Commission is partnering with the European Investment Fund, part of the European Investment Bank Group (EIB), to launch the BlueInvest Fund today. During the BlueInvest Day conference in Brussels, EIB Vice-President Emma Navarro and Virginijus Sinkevičius, Commissioner for (...) Read more.

The Marine Institute continues to invest in the next generation of ocean professionals, through the 2021 Summer Bursary Scholarship Programme, which provides third level students with work experience across a number of marine areas. Their Bursary Scholarship Programme has been (...) Read more.

The Atlantic Maritime Ecosystem Network, the MarENet project, launches an exciting Blue Entrepreneurship Programme. The aim is to foster innovative business ideas in the Blue Economy sector across the Atlantic Frontage (Ireland, France & Spain). Through the implementation of this (...) Read more.

ED2MIT is one of 11 Pilot Experiences designed and developed by MATES. ED2MIT is developing a series of four online training courses for topics related to data literacy, data management and modern platforms for digitalisation in the maritime industry to (...) Read more.

EMB is looking for two enthusiastic, engaged and creative young ambassadors that are willing to play an important role in advocating for EMB and promoting the societal and political relevance of marine science and the ocean within their own communities, (...) Read more.

Brussels, 2 February 2021 – Ministers from the 42 Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) countries have agreed to intensify their efforts towards a sustainable blue economy in the Mediterranean. Doing so, they want to promote the recovery of the region’s (...) Read more.

Watch short videos on "Achieving a Blue Economy for the Mediterranean" here and here.And a full version here.

Check out the leaflets and full reports "Towards a Sustainable Blue Economy in the Mediterranean region" prepared by the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM). Leaflets in English, French and Arabic. Full Reports in English, French and Arabic.

Watch short videos on "Achieving a Blue Economy for the Mediterranean" here and here.And a full version here.

The process of the 2020 Forum of Marine Protected Areas in the Mediterranean was initiated last October 2020 with a  questionnaire widely circulated within the Mediterranean MPA community, followed by a series of successful online working groups carried out in (...) Read more.

The UfM Second Ministerial Conference on Sustainable Blue Economy will take place on 2 February 2021. It aims  at improving maritime governance and at  intensifying join efforts, activities and projects in various blue economy sectors (including blue jobs; marine litter; (...) Read more.

At the Blue Economy Window call Info Day, practical information on the new call was provided. The EMFF call supports the sustainable development of the blue economy SMEs across the European Union. The overall budget for the call is €20 (...) Read more.

Renewable energy is essential for economic and sustainable development. In this regard, the seas and oceans are an abundant source of renewable energy (Blue Energy or Blue Energy -BE-).This energy can contribute to greater penetration of renewable energy into the (...) Read more.

WavEC Offshore Renewables is organizing an online course on CFD: CFD FOR SUSTAINABLE OCEAN SOLUTIONS: COURSE I. The course will take place on Februrary 8-11, 2021, sponsored by the University of Tokyo and the University of São Paulo. The CFD (...) Read more.

On Thursday 28 January 2021 from 10:00 to 12:30 (CET) SEArica, in cooperation with the Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of the European Commission and the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions,will organise an online conference dedicated to "A (...) Read more.

Interrreg Europe programme is  intensively preparing its next edition and  the second draft version of the Cooperation Programme Interreg Europe (2021-2027) is now available.  It includes sections dedicated to the overall strategy of the programme, features of the operations, target (...) Read more.

At the initiative of DG MARE, the FARNET Support Unit organised for its 11th transnational seminar for FLAGs from the Mediterranean and Black Sea online from the 25th to the 27th of November 2020. The seminar aimed to help coastal (...) Read more.

EUMOFA has recently published the second edition of the study “Blue bioeconomy report”. The study aims to provide an updated overview of the European Union’s blue bioeconomy sector, focusing on cutting-edge applications of aquatic biomass by examining three topics.  Integrated Multi-Trophic (...) Read more.

After decades of increasing human pressures on the Mediterranean and Black Sea marine ecosystems and fisheries resources, the latest data suggest that a corner is finally being turned on overexploitation of the region’s vital fish stocks. According to a new report (...) Read more.

BlueMed has identified “Explore the potential of Blue Biotechnologies” as one of the priority goals of its Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). Among the actions identified to reach this goal will be to foster collaborative research through transdisciplinary fields (...) Read more.

To ensure that offshore renewable energy can help reach the EU's ambitious energy and climate targets, the Commission published a dedicated EU strategy on offshore renewable energy COM(2020)741 on 19 November 2020 that assesses its potential contribution and proposes ways (...) Read more.

The event will focus on the most relevant outcomes of the BlueMed CSA.After intense collaborative work, the Mediterranean countries will showcase the process and results of the Pilot Initiative for a Healthy, Plastic-free Mediterranean Sea to tackle the marine litter (...) Read more.

UfM Member States declared 28 November as the ‘International Day of the Mediterranean’, to be observed from now on each year with the aim to foster a common Mediterranean identity while promoting intercultural exchanges and embracing the diversity of the (...) Read more.

Discover the AQUA-LIT Toolbox, an online repository full of solutions and recommendations for a better handling of marine litter.The EMFF funded project AQUA-LIT have been working over the last 2 years to bring to life the AQUA-LIT Toolbox, an online (...) Read more.

The Commission, the Council and the Parliament reached a provisional political agreement on the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) for the period of 2021-2027. In line with the objectives of the European Green Deal and Sustainable Development Goal (...) Read more.

The Black Sea Virtual Knowledge Centre (BSVKC) is a project supported by the European Commission and managed by the Permanent International Secretariat of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (BSEC PERMIS). The objective of the BSVKC is to provide a (...) Read more.

The general objective of this Call is to boost the uptake of digitalisation and innovation by tourism SMEs through transnational cooperation and capacity building.  The action aims at: reinforcing transnational and cross-border cooperation, in particular integration of tourism businesses and stakeholders in (...) Read more.

The side-event is designed as an interactive web-dialogue to discuss the need for a collaborative effort to accelerate a food systems transformation in the Mediterranean region, in the COVID-19 context.As the disruptions resulting from the COVID-19 crisis have highlighted the (...) Read more.

The envisaged Blue Economy Partnership is foreseen as a co-funded partnership under the Horizon Europe R&I framework programme 2021-27. The format will be a public-public initiative with the core group of formal members and signatories comprised of research and innovation (...) Read more.

The ocean has always provided us with plentiful resources, and many populations around the world depend on it for food and livelihood. While these resources are under an increasing amount of stress, it seems also possible to solve present and (...) Read more.

The National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Marine Engineering, has organized as part of the Project TRIM – Technology and Industrial Research for Marine Mobility (www.inm.cnr.it/trim), funded at national level by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, an (...) Read more.

The exploitation of marine energy sources opens a discussion on Mediterranean landscape, more than other renewable energies. The research on blue energy is not limited to technological issues but calls for a wider approach. Nowadays, the barriers to the deployment (...) Read more.

Although the adoption of marine spatial plans is increasing worldwide, many regions and countries still need support to adopt or fully implement them.In this context, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO and European Commission’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (...) Read more.

The 1st Mediterranean Assessment Report entitled “Climate and Environmental Change in the Mediterranean Basin – Current Situation and Risks for the Future” prepared by MedECC, the independent network of Mediterranean Experts on Climate and environmental Change founded in 2015, has (...) Read more.

The BlueMed Implementation Plan, drafted in June 2020, is now final and available on the BlueMed website.It presents the thematic and structuring activities to be developed in order to ignite a transformative process at Mediterranean level, addressing the shared research-based (...) Read more.

Circle the Med Forum represents a pathway to sustainability. It follows a new development model that decouples growth from resource constraints. We are promoting new production-consumption models and business initiatives in a “circular way”.A prosperous and peaceful Mediterranean region in (...) Read more.

As part of the collaboration between several institutions working in the Mediterranean, the Mediterranean Biodiversity Protection Community (MBPC) and the BlueMed CSA will host a short course on “Science-Policy-Society interactions in ecosystem-based marine resources management and planning” from 1 to (...) Read more.

BlueMed has identified “Explore the potential of Blue Biotechnologies” as one of the priority goals of its Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). Among the actions identified to reach this goal will be to foster collaborative research through transdisciplinary fields (...) Read more.

The 9th issue of the biannual flash news on blue economy in the Mediterranean region is now available on our platform. You will find the most updated information related to the work of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and (...) Read more.

The MaRINET2 project consortium has organized a short online free course for offshore renewable energy researchers who will discuss methods for reducing uncertainty in techno-economic analysis of ocean energy. The topics covered include integrated tank testing, hydrodynamics of fixed and (...) Read more.

Les travaux de la Task Force 2021-2027, démarrés au début de cet année, se poursuivent avec l'objectif final de construire le futur programme de coopération Maritime Italie-France. En fait, les membres de la Task Force se réuniront encore (virtuellement) le (...) Read more.

Today, the European Commision published a threshold value for marine litter on coastlines, paving the way for litter-free coasts and seas. EU Member States' experts have unanimously agreed that a beach will need to have less than 20 litter items (...) Read more.

The vision of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development is ‘the science we need for the ocean we want’. To achieve the Ocean Decade vision, a wide range of partners will implement endorsed Decade Actions in (...) Read more.

The European Commission is in the process of shaping the new comprehensive approach to the blue economy. This initiative will identify ways to make the EU’s ‘blue economy’ more sustainable, in line with the European Green Deal. The blue economy (...) Read more.

12 scholarships will be available for students coming from the following countries: Albania, Algeria, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Italy, Libya, Malta, Mauritania, Montenegro, Morocco, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Tunisia.Please note that for foreign students the application procedure takes longer, since (...) Read more.

The BLUE BIO MED (Interreg MED) project officially kicked off in September this year and it is now up and running. The official open launch event will be on Tuesday 20 October (14.30-17.30).This will be the occasion for the project (...) Read more.

The largest ecosystem on earth, the ocean is the lung of the planet, providing the oxygen for every second breath we take. It provides the main food source for almost half of the world’s population and plays host to an (...) Read more.

Maritime traffic and offshore oil and gas exploration and production constitute important drivers of marine pollution in the Mediterranean. The "Study on trends and outlook of marine pollution from ships and activities and of maritime traffic and offshore activities in (...) Read more.

On Monday, 27 July 2020, the Blue Growth Community (BGC) organised its 2nd Advisory Board meeting (on-line event) with a high participation -more than 120 registered persons and around 65 permanent attending participants- among the BGC members, MED Blue Growth (...) Read more.

The meetings will continue until October 2020 in order to define the priorities and orientations of each Mediterranean country to be considered in the new Post-2020 SAPBIO.In the framework of the preparation of the Post-2020 Strategic Action Programme for the (...) Read more.

In August 2020, a Key Policy Paper on Maritime Surveillance was formally adopted by all PANORAMED partners. This paper outlines specific recommendations to tackle increasing pressure on vessels traffic, mass tourism, climate change, illegal fisheries and pollution.Maritime Surveillance is a (...) Read more.

BLUE BIO MED is one of the two strategic projects funded under Interreg MED Axis 4 on Governance (PANORAMED) recently launched that focus on blue bioeconomy. The project promotes the transformation of Mediterranean blue bioeconomy field toward sustainable development goals (...) Read more.

The BlueMed Research and Innovation Initiative is formally joined by 16 EU and non-EU Mediterranean countries and steered by the EuroMediterranean Group of Senior Officials BlueMed Working Group (GSO BlueMed WG), co-chaired by the European Commission and the co-chair of (...) Read more.

Intéressé par l’économie bleue ? Assistez à un concours européen de projets innovants sur l’économie bleue ! Dans le cadre du projet européen MISTRAL, le Pôle Mer Méditerranée organise une « Blue Growth Elevator pitch competition ». L’évènement aura lieu le (...) Read more.

The Malta Council for Science and Technology would like to announce the call for Ideas towards Start-Up Actions for a PlAstic fRee heAlthy meDIterranean SEa – PARADISE. The call is aimed at Enabling Research in Plastics in a Circular Economy Context, (...) Read more.

A message from Gaetano Leone, Coordinator, UNEP/MAP-Barcelona Convention SecretariatThe Mediterranean continues to be a beautiful destination for millions of beachgoers and holidaymakers despite the rising pressure it has been subjected to for decades. The onset of environmental degradation is surreptitious, (...) Read more.

Are you a European SME with a circular idea, interested in creating a plan for the circular development? The C-VoUCHER open call will launch on August 3rd and will close on Oct, 30th, 2020 at 17:00 (Brussels Local Time).C-VoUCHER will (...) Read more.

If you are are involved in governance issues in the Mediterranean, there is ONE great conference coming up on November 6th 2020.To learn more, watch this video

UN Environment Programme and Open Universiteit have created a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Marine Litter as a key activity of the Global Partnership on Marine Litter (you can join the GPML). It is also part of the Clean (...) Read more.

Consultation outcomeThe contributions will help re-examine the EU's role in international ocean governance, assess the three priorities of the current agenda (actions and goals) and identify new policy areas/actions to tackle existing and emerging challenges.The targeted consultation complements the International (...) Read more.

The European Commission has launched a €1 billion call for research and innovation projects that respond to the climate crisis and help protect Europe's unique ecosystems and biodiversity. The projects funded under this call are expected to deliver results in ten (...) Read more.

Achieving a cleaner Mediterranean Sea requires better implementation of policies and enhanced environmental data and information, according to a joint report by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and United Nations Environment Programme’s Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP), published today. Cumulative effects (...) Read more.

Blue Biotechnology, or Marine Biotechnology, is a scientific-business activity that seeks the application of biotechnological advances to marine and aquatic environments. The European Blue Growth Strategy considers Blue Biotechnology as one of the five sectors with the greatest potential for (...) Read more.

The videos of presentations from the Marine Spatial Planning Workshop: Balancing social, economic, cultural, and ecological objectives, organised by IMECaNon 17-19 August 2020, are now available online!You may watch the videos on the IMBER website or YouTube channel:Day 1 – (...) Read more.

The Master is open to candidates from all Countries with priority for those coming fromMediterranean and Black Sea countries.Format: Part-time, three short sessions of 15 days each will be held in Trieste in March, June andSeptember 2021. There will be the (...) Read more.

On 6th November 2020, the Interreg MED Programme together with the Agence Nationale de la Cohésion des Territoires (ANCT) invites you to brainstorm on the future of European territorial cooperation in order to better coordinate and strengthen the governance actions (...) Read more.

European Commission is organizing the European Tourism Convention on 12th October 2020. The Convention will launch a dialogue on sustainable recovery and the strategic orientations for the tourism of tomorrow and guide future work and cooperation on tourism (towards a European (...) Read more.

The Ocean Decade Virtual Series is a series of high-level and scientific interactive virtual dialogues aimed at mobilizing the global ocean community and fostering transformative partnerships and innovative solution-oriented actions to achieve the Decade Outcomes.The series will be organized around (...) Read more.

The MaRINET2 project has opened its 5th and final call.The call is targeted at offshore energy technology developers who are looking to test their device or components. The project offers fully-funded access to a world-leading network of testing and research (...) Read more.

In view of the European objective to decarbonize Europe before 2050, there is a need to understand and anticipate future interaction and possible conflict between fisheries and windfarms and associated mitigating approaches. In 2019, under the Assistance Mechanism for MSP, (...) Read more.

EASME wishes to enter into a service contract to improve the effectiveness of bottom-up initiatives funded through calls for proposals and supported under the direct management of the EMFF fund.  You can learn more here.

The call aims to foster cooperation between Member States and eligible countries for the protection of environment in marine regions and subregions. An application should be submitted by at least two different legal entities from at least two different Member (...) Read more.

Save the date!EASME is organising a virtual Info-day on the forthcoming 2020 Blue Economy Window call on 24 November 2020. For updates on the call publication, check regularly the F&T opportunity portal https://europa.eu/!bp89rj

As part of the Ministerial process, the UfM Stakeholders Conference on Blue Economy was organised for the 10-11th of March in Barcelona. However, due to the COVID-19 crisis and the impracticability to undertake the UfM Stakeholders Conference on Blue Economy (...) Read more.

A total of 150 participants from 40 different countries participated in the MSPglobal Dialogue sessions on "Gender and Marine Policy" organized on 22 April 2020. The audience was composed of 52% women, 39% men and 9% others among the French-speaking (...) Read more.

On Monday, 27 July 2020, the Blue Growth Community (BGC) celebrated its 2nd Advisory Board meeting (on-line event) with a high participation -more than 120 registered persons and around 65 permanent attending participants- among the BGC members, MED Blue Growth (...) Read more.

MEDports Association’s Employment, Training and Maritime Expertise (ETME) Committee has been working on the most requested professional profiles in Mediterranean ports. To obtain the appropriate results, the ETME Committee launched a survey in 2019 covering 4 domains: Port management, IT, (...) Read more.

For the online seminar organized on 24 June 2020 in the context of its pilot project in the West Mediterranean, MSPglobal brought together more than one hundred participants (56% male; 44% female) to learn more about the development of Marine (...) Read more.

The results of the European Commission’s new study on the economic impact of Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP), carried out in the framework of the Joint Roadmap to accelerate MSP processes worldwide (MSProadmap), were presented during an online seminar co-organized with (...) Read more.

European Commission has published a roadmap and opened a public consultation in preparation for the initiative on new approach for exploiting Europe’s offshore renewable energy potential in a sustainable and inclusive way. As part of the European Green Deal, the (...) Read more.

The European Commission and the European External Action Service have launched a targeted consultation to assess development needs and options for the EU’s international ocean governance agenda. Ocean governance concerns the international and regional processes, agreements, rules and institutions that (...) Read more.

Under this Call, DG REGIO seeks expressions of interest from transnational partnerships of regional authorities, including ecosystems of regional stakeholders (universities, research centres, clusters, SMEs, etc.) willing to pilot interregional innovation partnerships. The objective is to incentivise business investment projects (...) Read more.

With the UfM Grant Scheme for employment promotion – Regional response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UfM is actively supporting non-profit organizations in the Mediterranean that work to give people opportunities in view of the COVID-19-induced economic crisis. It focuses (...) Read more.

On June 25th and 26th 2020, the WestMED Italian National Hub, with the support of the National Coordinator and the WestMED Core Team, gathered over 200 stakeholders online. These were spread over four different sessions: two plenary thematic sessions in (...) Read more.

On June 30th 2020, more than 20 stakeholders from Mauritania gathered online to discuss the Blue Economy concept. This national event was organised by the WestMED Assistance Mechanism in cooperation with the National Coordinator in Mauritania of the WestMED Initiative (...) Read more.

Despite the current context, the MPA NETWORKS project is in full swing. This project, which gathers 10 partners and is led by MedPAN, aims at strengthening Marine Protected Area managers networks in the Mediterranean to boost the efficiency of MPAs. (...) Read more.

This online seminar was organised in the framework of the activities of the Seas, Rivers, Islands and Coastal Areas Intergroup of the European Parliament, Searica, with the support of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) and the Travel Foundation. (...) Read more.

Since early March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted business as usual around the world with severe consequences affecting most industries in the Mediterranean and Black Sea region, not least of which, the fisheries and aquaculture sectors. Two months after (...) Read more.

The call is targeted on supply systems in the blue bioeconomy: logistics and transportation – from harvest to processing. The scope of the call is to fund projects that facilitate the transfer (i.e. logistics, preservation and transportation) of bio-resources from (...) Read more.

A new study from the European Commission reveals economic and social benefits of having an integrated Maritime Spatial planning approach. The blue economy has become a pillar for Europe's welfare and prosperity. It represents all economic activities and sectors related (...) Read more.

Blue Energy has become one of the potential fields of expansion towards achieving the EU's 2050 decarbonisation target. In fact, the EU uses Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) as a tool for the harmonious development of activities in the marine areas (...) Read more.

37 members of universities, sectoral agencies, business support organizations, SMEs, interests groups and national public authorities, gathered yesterday to celebrate the first virtual BLUE DEAL Testing Lab. The BLUE DEAL TESTING LABs are 2 virtual workshops where partners cooperate to (...) Read more.

Throughout the world, the fisheries and aquaculture sectors are facing the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. With a view to sharing information among its countries and facilitating a reflection on future responses, the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) (...) Read more.

The Mediterranean Action Plan of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP/MAP) announces the “Mediterranean Sea Programme (MedProgramme): Enhancing Environmental Security”—a 43 million USD endeavour funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) with the aim of reducing major environmental stresses, strengthening climate (...) Read more.

The PHAROS4MPAs project, coordinated by WWF over the past two years, has explored how Mediterranean MPAs are affected by several maritime sectors, and how the environmental impacts of those sectors can be prevented or minimized. The sectors studied were maritime (...) Read more.

Within the WestMED Assistance Mechanism for Blue Growth and Blue Economy , the National Hub Italy, with the support of the National Coordinator, organises an online National Event on 25 – 26 June, with morning and afternoon sessions. Maritime Spatial (...) Read more.

The first MSPglobal online seminar in Arabic was organized on 27 May 2020 on the topic of “Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) and Sustainable Blue Economy” with a total of 92 participants (45% female; 55% male). Discussions focused on the development (...) Read more.

The BlueMed Initiative presents the e-training course on Understanding and acting for a healthy plastic free Mediterranean Sea, organized in the framework of the Pilot Action Healthy Plastic-free Mediterranean Sea. This course brings together experts working on Marine Litter and (...) Read more.

The BlueMed Start Up Action SEALINES has recently published its final outcome: the feasibility study for a scientific research hub on an integrated green energy system. The StartUp Action focused on assessing the viability of repurposing a decommissioned offshore platform (...) Read more.

The call for challenges of the 5th edition of Ocean Hackathon® is now open. More than 200 challenges are expected. You have a simple idea coming from a need of sea users? You have a more mature project that needs (...) Read more.

Un accord de partenariat a été signé aujourd’hui 9 juin 2020 par Cluster Maritime Tunisien (CMT) et le cluster italien Blue Italian Growth (BIG). Cette signature a été réalisée lors d’une vidéoconférence à laquelle ont assisté l’ambassadeur italien en Tunisie, (...) Read more.

Today, the European Commission published “The EU Blue Economy Report 2020”, providing an overview of the performance of the EU economic sectors related to oceans and the coastal environment. With a turnover of €750 billion in 2018, the EU blue (...) Read more.

To meet the ambitious targets set by the Regional Plan of Action for Small-scale Fisheries in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, and in order to disseminate and scale-up best practices, promote cooperation and identify gaps and areas for investment (...) Read more.

In the area of climate action, the EU will invest €46.8 million to support climate change mitigation, adaptation and governance and information projects. This includes practical support for Member States drafting their 2030 national climate and energy plans that will (...) Read more.

Creating a local dynamic to respond to a regional issue is one of the major axes of Beyond Plastic Med. To achieve this concrete objective, BeMed is launching a call to reduce plastic pollution in Mediterranean islands. Key information about (...) Read more.

During the last 3 weeks, MPA-ENGAGE has been conducting their first webinar series course entitled "Mediterranean MPAs facing Climate Change". Over the course of three consecutive weeks, participants learned how to gather the key information needed to develop a climate (...) Read more.

Join the United Nations World Oceans Day virtual event in celebration of the 2020 theme "Innovation for a Sustainable Ocean". The event is produced in partnership with the non-profit organization Oceanic Global. UN World Oceans Day 2020 will be a (...) Read more.

As populations worldwide are struggling out of the COVID crisis, the coast and the open sea never looked so appealing to individuals and their families as a free breathing space. But this crisis should not let us forget that the (...) Read more.

On Monday 8 June - World Ocean Day - the Virtual Ocean Literacy Summit will be livestreamed between 11:00 and 14:00. The Summit brings together the EU, IOC-UNESCO and other international partners to discuss the role of ocean literacy (OL) (...) Read more.

The 18th Meeting of the MSEG on MSP took place on Wednesday 13th May 2020. Due to the unprecedented circumstances at present, the meeting was held online. Updates were provided by all 20 of the Member States represented at the (...) Read more.

The BlueMed Initiative presents the e-training course on Understanding and acting for a healthy plastic free Mediterranean Sea, organized in the framework of the Pilot Action Healthy Plastic-free Mediterranean Sea. This course brings together experts working on Marine Litter and (...) Read more.

The World Economic Forum has organised for this week a series of webinars called OceanDialogues. Content is split across 3 key themes that allow you to explore the diverse topics addressed during the meeting. Some of the webinars taking place (...) Read more.

The EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) brings together policymakers, stakeholders and citizens to achieve climate and energy goals for the EU. In the framework of EUSEW 2020, Ocean Energy Europe (OEE) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) will host (...) Read more.

The EU Sustainable Energy Week 2020 is coming to you live wherever you are. The digital Policy Conference will run online from 23 to 25 June 2020. The EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) brings together policymakers, stakeholders and citizens to (...) Read more.

The IOG-Forum Thematic Working Groups (TWGs) were launched via online webinars between 22-24 April. 435 ocean actors, stakeholders and experts joined the webinars from their desks from around the world – demonstrating our shared commitment to ocean governance despite the (...) Read more.

The UfM participated in the EU International Ocean Governance Forum, launched by the European Commission in association with the European External Action Service to provide a platform for dialogue on ocean challenges and governance solutions The International Ocean Governance (IOG) (...) Read more.

In March 2020, the MSP-MED project “Towards the Spatial Plan of Mediterranean” (one of the awarded projects of the EMFF-MSP-2019 call for projects) was launched with the first on-line kick off meeting, taking place with the support of the AM (...) Read more.

The UfM strengthens collaborative efforts to address the impacts of pollution together with the UN Environment Program / Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP). The Mediterranean Sea is the most polluted European sea with 200 thousand tons of plastic dumped each year. (...) Read more.

20 May is European Maritime Day. Every year the EU organises the EMD conference around that date. It is one of the highlights of the maritime calendar, with up to 1,500 stakeholders joining as we celebrate the blue economy. This (...) Read more.

The Parliament Magazine published the article "How the blue economy can help Europe tackle climate change?". Blue Growth is the European Commission’s long-term strategy to support sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sectors. Please access the article: https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/articles/feature/how-blue-economy-can-help-europe-tackle-climate-change

WestMED Initiative organized a series of Hackathon type meetings amongst which Hackathon n4 discussed and assessed the potential for a Mediterranean-wide Maritime Innovation Technologies Platform (Med-MIT) or similar actions and/or projects that could allow for greater cooperation between clusters, research/technological (...) Read more.

The webinar “Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Ports and Maritime Transport in the Mediterranean Region”, has been jointly organized by the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and the MEDports Association, on the 27th May 2020, from (...) Read more.

The EU-funded ODYSSEA project has begun a large campaign to reach out to Blue Economy industrial actors across the Mediterranean, which recently led to the agreement signed with Energean to integrate ODYSSEA monitoring equipment at a gas production platform in (...) Read more.

Fort de la nouvelle mouture de sa plateforme d’information océanographique, installée sur le nouveau super-calculateur de CLS (Collecte Localisation Satellites) ODYSSEA travaille ardument sur la mise en place de nouvelles collaborations dans le secteur de l’économie bleue à travers la (...) Read more.

ENI CBC Med Program has launched its last call for proposals for the 2014-2020 period, specifically dedicated to capitalization projects. The main features of the call are the following: • Overall budget of the call: €11 million • EU contribution (...) Read more.

Our Biannual Newsletter is out! The 8th issue of the biannual flash news on blue economy in the Mediterranean region is now available on our platform. You will find the most updated information related to the work of the Union (...) Read more.

Séminaire en ligne: Comment intégrer la #GIZC et la #PEM ? Quels sont les défis et solutions à cette intégration? Notre séminaire en ligne explorera toutes ces questions et bien d'autres Rejoignez-nous pour un séminaire en ligne pour poser vos (...) Read more.

Join the MPA-Engage 1st webinar series to develop your skills on how to: ► Monitor in a harmonized way the climate change impacts in MPAs: UNIT 1 (18 - 22 May from 10h - 12h CET) ► Assess the ecological (...) Read more.

The unexpected break-out and global spread of the pandemic labelled COVD-19 is posing extremely serious challenges for the whole economy. In such a difficult time, nonetheless, crowdfunding has proven to be a trusted and reliable tool to support civic and (...) Read more.

BLUE DEAL project intends to perform open innovation actions in target regions to develop cooperation mechanisms between SMEs, PAs, Knowledge institutions and civil society and promote new initiatives for Blue Energy deployment in the Mediterranean region. For further information, you (...) Read more.

Within the support activities in the field of Sustainable Transport and Alternative Fuels, the Italian National Hub has activated a local working group, composed of stakeholders in the field of LNG for maritime transport. The members of this group include (...) Read more.

Le Hub national Tunisie a participé ce jeudi 2 avril à un webinar organisé par l’Association Tunisienne de l’Ingénierie Côtière, Portuaire et Maritime et l’Association la Saison Bleue sur les perspectives de l’économie bleue durable en Tunisie. Le maire de (...) Read more.

In order to quickly direct the available European public funds to address the consequences of the coronavirus crisis, under Article 139 of the ESIF Regulation, the Commission has waived this year the obligation to request the refunds of unspent pre-financing (...) Read more.

The kick-off meeting of the new MED Sustainable Tourism Community, held in 3-4 March 2020 in Salou (Spain), marked the launch of the second implementation phase of the Interreg MED Horizontal Project. It brought together representatives of most of the (...) Read more.

The Advisory Committee of the Strategic Action Programme for the Conservation of the Biological Diversity in the Mediterranean Region (SAPBIO) held an online meeting on 2 April 2020 to examine the roadmap for the elaboration of a post-2020 SAPBIO in (...) Read more.

A new project implemented by the Mediterranean Action Plan of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP/MAP) and funded by the European Union went underway in March 2020 with the two-pronged aim of strengthening national capabilities in integrated monitoring of the Mediterranean (...) Read more.

With two-thirds of the human population concentrated around coastlines, alongside with growing threats from sea level rise and increased storminess, accelerated coastal development and changes to natural coastlines are inevitable, leading to habitat loss and reduction of biodiversity and productivity. (...) Read more.

The coronavirus pandemic is a global crisis. It can only be solved at global level. A strong European response in support of our partners is the only way to put an end to the spread of the virus and to (...) Read more.

Coronavirus: European Commission helps Member States support local fishing and aquaculture communities through EU and national funds DG MARE has published an information note to give guidance to EU Member States outlining existing tools and instruments to support their local (...) Read more.

A new interactive online tool to map initiatives and projects addressing small-scale fisheries (SSF) in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea region has been developed by the GFCM, in collaboration with the Friends of SSF partner organizations: the WWF Mediterranean (...) Read more.

The BlueGeneration project launched in February 2020 its flagship job portal at www.bluegeneration.careers Companies across the Blue Economy can now advertise open positions and training opportunities free of charge to thousands of young Europeans. The portal is being promoted to (...) Read more.

While coastal zones in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean are undoubtedly a competitive advantage for local communities, they are facing ever-increasing natural and anthropogenic pressures that generate poor environmental conditions and can lead to their demise. Based on this (...) Read more.

Fórum Oceano, the Portuguese National Hub, organised, in collaboration with the Regional Coordination and Development Commissions of Alentejo and Algarve, a series of meetings to bring together the regional stakeholders. These sessions happened on the 11th of February in Évora (...) Read more.

The Blue Growth Community organized its First Annual Assembly with a significant participation of the new associated projects and many interested regions in Blue Economy The last 4th and 5th February 2020, the Blue Growth Community, represented by the core (...) Read more.

Building on the WestMED Palermo Hackathons in 2019, this edition will explore and clarify project concepts, funding, partnerships, and establish next steps towards successful project application. The session will be back to back with the UfM Regional Stakeholders Conference on (...) Read more.

MedPAN has launched a Call for Small Projects to support the actions led in Marine Protected Areas (MPA) in the Mediterranean. The Call for Small Projects aims to reinforce MPA management. Please note that the call has specific eligibility rules. (...) Read more.

A new call for Strategic Projects under the Axis 4 of the Interreg MED Program will be launched in March 2020. On this occasion, the strategic projects will be focused on Innovation in blue economy, in particular on: - promoting (...) Read more.

Dear Stakeholders, The CoPresidency and Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) would like to invite you to attend to the 2020 UfM Regional Stakeholders Conference on Blue Economy and WESTMED Hackathons on 10th and 11th March 2020 in (...) Read more.

The advanced course on the “Sustainable Development of Coastal Communities” launched by CIHEAM Bari last September, finalized last November 16. It was a new high-level specialised programme funded by the Italian Cooperation and implemented by CIHEAM Bari in close collaboration (...) Read more.

On November 19th, the ‘Regional Seminar on Blue Skills/Careers/Jobs’, sponsored by GIZ within the wider partnership with UfM on Blue Economy, took place in Brussels, Belgium. The Seminar aimed at: • An interactive day of exchange on the problems and (...) Read more.

Brussels, 19th and 20th November 2019. The 6th meeting of the Working Group on the Blue Economy (WG on BE) will take place at the Centre des Conferences Albert Borschette (CCAB) in Brussels on 20 November 2019. The Working Group (...) Read more.

The UfM Secretary General, Nasser Kamel, participated in the XV Conference of the Mediterranean Commission of the European League for Economic Cooperation (ELEC) under the title “Promoting Blue Tourism in the Mediterranean”, which took place in Palma de Mallorca (Spain) (...) Read more.

The European Commission has launched on 13 September the Blue Invest Platform which aims to support investment readiness and access to finance for early-stage businesses, SMEs and scale-ups in the blue economy. The Blue Invest Platform provides the following services: (...) Read more.

The European Commission has launched its online public consultation on the review of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. This initiative will review the achievements and shortcomings of this Directive, explore options for improvement and propose possible amendments. This public consultation (...) Read more.

Save the date – EMFF Info Day will take place on Monday 25 November 2019 at Albert Borschette Congress Center, in Brussels. New blue economy call will be presented in a series of presentations organised by EASME and the Directorate (...) Read more.

IPBES has released a call for nominations of experts to participate in the thematic assessment of the interlinkages among biodiversity, water, food and health (nexus assessment) and the thematic assessment of the underlying causes of biodiversity loss and the determinants (...) Read more.

On Wednesday 23 October, the WestMED Steering Committee (WMSC) will be meeting in Rabat, Morocco. The meeting will function as an opportunity for the WMSC to evaluate the implementation of the initiative, as well as to reflect on the outcomes (...) Read more.

On Thursday 19 August 2021, EMB will host its twelfth Science Lunch Webinar on the topic of 'Navigating the Future V as inspiration and direction for marine science in the Ocean Decade'. The webinar will be 1 hour long and (...) Read more.

The 13th edition of the Mediterranean Week of Economic Leaders (MedaWeek Barcelona 2019) will be held on 20th-22nd November 2019 in Barcelona, Spain. More detailed information can be found here: http://www.medaeconomicweek.org/

Bring your own expertise, share your ideas, imagine innovative solutions, design new digital tools, develop your network, get access to unexploited data, learn more together coached by experts... and enjoy a friendly week-end! Ocean hackathon® is a 48 hours non-stop (...) Read more.

Business2Sea is an international event dedicated to the development of projects and businesses in the different sectors of the Sea economy. It is open to the participation of all organisations: companies, business associations, higher education institutions, and research centres. Business2Sea (...) Read more.

The Barcelona premises of the Union for the Mediterranean next October 15-18 will be the venues of two important BlueMed events: -the 4th BlueMed Platforms meeting (Oct. 15-16); -the Young Ambassadors training (Oct. 17-18). Both the events, in different ways, (...) Read more.

Join the MED Sustainable Tourism Community on the 9th of October 2019 for its event "Fostering sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean region". This debate, organised as a side event of the European Week of Cities and Regions, has the objective (...) Read more.

Organised under the Hellenic Presidency of the Programme, on 24th October 2019, in Athens, the Interreg MED Programme projects’ communities will unfold their results and demonstrate how the Programme architecture became operational and efficient. On this occasion, you will witness (...) Read more.

The InnoBlueGrowth project which leads the Blue Growth Community celebrates its final event on 19/20 September 2019 in Brussels, in a joint event with the Green Growth Community, aiming at discussing the key elements necessary for a “Transition towards blue (...) Read more.

This event corresponds to the Capitalisation Conference of the Interreg MED MITOMED+ (Models of Integrated Tourism in the MEDiterranean Plus) project. It aims to disseminate its results and encourage their replication beyond the project’s area. It is aimed at EU (...) Read more.

Study on MSP, prepared by the EU MSP Platform for DG MARE / EASME: Addressing conflicting spatial demands in MSP This report presents the key findings of a study that was carried out in 2018 to explore the range of (...) Read more.

The objective of this call for proposals is to support the establishment and implementation of Maritime Spatial Plans in line with the objectives pursued in the framework of the MSP Directive. More specifically, this action intends to support Member States (...) Read more.

Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have an important role in providing ecosystem services, mitigating the impacts of climate change and increasing ecological and socioeconomic resilience of biodiversity and surrounding coastal communities. Increasing the number of MPAs and developing appropriate management (...) Read more.

Representatives of G7 Countries, Regional Seas Conventions and Programmes to which G7 Countries are party, and a number of stakeholders from intergovernmental mechanisms, civil society, and industry, met in Metz, France, on 5 and 6 May 2019 on the occasion (...) Read more.

The Fourteenth International MEDCOAST Congress on Coastal and Marine Sciences, Engineering, Management and Conservation will be celebrated on 22 - 26 October 2019, in Marmaris, TURKEY. The MEDCOAST congress in Marmaris (Turkey) is the fourteenth event of the biennial series (...) Read more.

This is an EU call for grants in the area of Maritime Spatial Planning under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund. This call for proposals is launched in accordance with the 2019 Work Programme for the implementation of the European (...) Read more.

The Nature Conservancy and Encourage Capital have partnered to create a guide to impact investing in sustainable aquaculture, launched today. This guide represents the first-ever attempt to comprehensively assess the potential of sustainable aquaculture through both an environmental and financial (...) Read more.

Democritus University of Thrace team headed by Professor Georgios Sylaios will present the work carried out in the frame of the HERMES project in the 1st International Scientific Conference of the Design and Management of Harbor, Coastal and Offshore Works (...) Read more.

ABEF is about bold new thinking to accelerate Africa’s structural transformation and create jobs for a young population on the rise. The first Africa Blue Economy Forum was hosted in London on 8th June 2018 to raise awareness on the (...) Read more.

The European Commission and the Co-Presidency of the Initiative for the sustainable development of the blue economy in the western Mediterranean are holding the event Hackathons WestMED: "Blue economy contribution to the Summit of the Two Shores” on Tuesday 14 (...) Read more.

The EUSAIR stakeholder platform is conceived as the most important tool of the EU Strategy for the Adriatic-Ionian Region (EUSAIR) to increase stakeholder engagement, coordination and implementation process. The Platform is managed by Marche Region - Integrated Planning, International Activities, (...) Read more.

Maritime & Blue Logistics Startup Weekend 54 hours is all you need to disrupt in the maritime logistic sector, today! Do you have an idea you would like to pursue or a problem you would like to solve but don't (...) Read more.

Registration is open and inaugural class will take place on 29 April 2019 at the Open University of the Netherlands. On April 29th, 2019, the Open University of the Netherlands will have the inaugural class of its newest Massive Open (...) Read more.

On 25th February more than thirty entities, companies and people interested in renewable energies, have met in Valencia Port to discuss about the potential of the Mediterranean to take advantage of marine resources and obtain clean energy in the first (...) Read more.

The COFUND is the result of a collaboration between JPI Oceans and the former ERA-NETS COFASP and ERA MBT and consists of 27 partners from 16 countries. The main objective of the COFUND is to establish a coordinated R&D funding (...) Read more.

The Blue Bioeconomy Forum held its second working group meeting on 11 and 12 March in Brussels. Participants attended four half-a-day sessions dedicated to each working group: Policy, Environment and Regulation; Finance and Business Development; Consumers and Value Chains; Science, (...) Read more.

Blue Bieoconomy Forum second stakeholder event will take place in Brussels on 25 June. At this conference the European roadmap for the blue bioeconomy will be presented and discussed. You can contribute to the roadmap, get informed on the most (...) Read more.

EASME has launched a call for tender on Blue Economy: EASME/2019/OP/0008 Design and Implementation of a Blue Economy Development Framework. The deadline for presentation of offers is 26 April 2019. More detailed information can be found here: https://ted.europa.eu/TED/notice/udl?uri=TED%3ANOTICE%3A125844-2019%3ATEXT%3AEN%3AHTML

During its last meeting which took place for the very first time in Cairo (Egypt) on 29-30 January 2019, the Joint Monitoring Committee (decision-making body of the ENI CBC Med Programme composed of the representatives of 13 participating countries) approved (...) Read more.

The focus of the European Maritime Day 2019 in Lisbon, Portugal, will be on blue entrepreneurship, innovation and investment to transform traditional maritime sectors and boost emerging technologies and value chains. A specific focus will be put on research and (...) Read more.

On Monday 25 February the kick-off meeting with the WestMED Italian National Hub was held in Rome, at the premises of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Hosted by the WestMED National Coordinators for Italy, notably the Department of Cohesion within (...) Read more.

UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and the European Commission launched MSPGlobal, a new global project on maritime spatial planning, on 11 and 12 February at UNESCO Headquarters. The project aims to promote better maritime spatial planning with a view to (...) Read more.

There is a growing attention for the impact of the ocean economy in the European landscape. In order to plan for a sustainable Blue Growth, to manage ocean and coastal ecosystems, and to deal with the effects of climate change; (...) Read more.

A WestMED workshop was held at the Salon Halieutis, on the 22nd February 2019. It was attended by more than a hundred persons coming from private and public sectors, fishermen, fishery Department, students, and other blue economy stakeholders. The event (...) Read more.

Information Session on Marine Litter and Final Annual Project Meeting of Facility for Regional Policy Dialogue on Integrated Maritime Policy March 26th, 2019 – Thon EU, Brussels Draft Agenda 08:30 – 09:00 Registration 09:00 – 09:15 Opening Session European Commission (...) Read more.

Agenda of the 5th Meeting of the UfM Working Group on the Blue Economy, Conference Centre Albert Borschette (CCAB), 36 rue Froissart, Brussels 25 March 2019 09:00 – 09:30 Registration of participants 09:30 - 11:00 Opening (by the co-Presidency) Adoption (...) Read more.

The CPMR’s Intermediterranean Commission (IMC) has given its full backing to key plans for a territorial alliance aimed at developing a long-term strategy to build a sustainable future for all citizens in the Mediterranean. The ‘Mediterranean Cooperation Alliance Joint Declaration’ (...) Read more.

The MITOMED+ project’s 12th project meeting was held in Girona (Spain) on 24/25 January. The project partners met at the University of Girona to take stock of actions to date and discuss the project’s progress and continuity. The project partners (...) Read more.

DGPM is pleased to announce the international conference on Innovation for a Sustainable Ocean: Observatories and Knowledge Networks promoted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in cooperation with the Republic of Portugal, under the kind chairmanship of (...) Read more.

The conference will assess progress made towards the Malta Declaration and will renew commitment towards achieving the targets therein. Special focus will be placed on topics relating to social development for small-scale fisheries, decent work and the celebration of the (...) Read more.

BlueInvest, the high-profile event from the European Commission to promote investment in the ocean economy, has set foot in Malta on January 24, 2019. The concept is tried and tested: 20 innovative companies pitched for the hand – and wallet (...) Read more.

The European Strategy for more Growth and Jobs in Coastal and Maritime Tourism is celebrating its 5th anniversary since the adoption of its Communication in February 2014. The Strategy sets out several priority areas and lists 14 actions to overcome (...) Read more.

The MSP Platform organized a webinar series on the MSP for Blue Growth Study. The 2018 study gives information on how maritime spatial planning (MSP) can assist Member States to foster the potential for sustainable Blue Growth. Maritime spatial planning (...) Read more.

The list of the meetings to be held by GFCM along the year 2019 is already available for the public. You can access the list under the link below (previous registration required): https://gfcm.sharepoint.com/SecPortal/Shared%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx?id=%2FSecPortal%2FShared%20Documents%2FIntersession_2018-2019%2FLIST%20OF%20GFCM%20MEETINGS%20FOR%202019%2Epdf&parent=%2FSecPortal%2FShared%20Documents%2FIntersession_2018-2019&p=true&slrid=64e2b89e-409b-0000-59b4-2992fb81f97b

The blue economy is changing rapidly. Traditional activities such as transport, fishing and shipbuilding still employ over 5 million people but the fastest growth is in activities and value chains that did not exist ten years ago – renewable energy, (...) Read more.

More than 450 experts and scientists from 45 countries as well as from several international organizations, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders gathered at FAO headquarters, in Rome, from 10 to 14 December to discuss the state of the art of (...) Read more.

In the mark of the forty-second session of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM), which was resumed on Friday 14 December 2018, the GFCM elected its new Bureau for a two-year renewable mandate. Roland Kristo, from Albania, was (...) Read more.

The sixth World Ocean Summit will strive to build greater collaboration across regions and connect the world to new ideas and perspectives. Taking place in March 2019, this world-renowned event will take place in the Middle East for the first (...) Read more.

The State of Mediterranean and Black Sea Fisheries (SoMFi 2018), published by FAO-GFCM, was launched on December 11th. This report provides a comprehensive overview of recent trends in Mediterranean and Black Sea fisheries showcasing information on fishing activities, socio-economic impacts, (...) Read more.

The European Commission and the Co-Presidency of the Initiative for the sustainable development of the blue economy in the western Mediterranean organised the “Stakeholder conference: Towards concrete ‘blue’ actions in the western Mediterranean”, on Monday 3 December 2018 in Algiers, (...) Read more.

The Blue Growth Community, driven by the InnoBlueGrowth project (Interreg Med), organized its transnational Mid-Term Conference ‘Blue Economy: The Blue Way of Life’ on 22-23 November 2018, in Barcelona, Spain. The conference was co-organised by the CPMR Intermediterranean Commission (IMC), (...) Read more.

The English version of the initial outline for the Estonian MSP and the memorandum of intention to conduct impact assessment is now available. The document will also be shared with Baltic Sea countries for their information. The document constitutes the (...) Read more.

On Monday, the 19th of November 2018, national workshop “The MSP Directive in the maritime national scenario. Multilevel governance in the EUSAIR context” took place in Venice. About fifty participants, including representatives of local authorities, military and scientific institutions, representatives (...) Read more.

Ministers of the Western Mediterranean countries, at the presence of the European Commission and the Union for the Mediterranean, have adopted a declaration to strengthen maritime regional cooperation under the WestMED initiative. This initiative promotes the sustainable blue economy in the (...) Read more.

BLUEMED 2nd Coordinators’ Meeting – “Sustaining the lessons learned and enhancing the Bluemed initiative synergies” – will take place in Malta on 25 January 2019. The single day event will revolve around key actions and achievements of funded projects, with (...) Read more.

In June 2017, after the inaugural Ocean Conference, the Portuguese Government informed the UN-Oceans conference that Portugal was willing to organize the second edition of the event. It was now confirmed by the Portuguese Ministry of the Sea that the (...) Read more.

Inspired by the unique global opportunity to build greater prosperity for all while protecting these water resources for the present and future generations, over 18,000 participants from across the world including Heads of State and Government, Ministers and high level (...) Read more.

This forum is organized for industries, public agencies, financial organizations, researchers and civil society, working on or interested in the Blue Bioeconomy of the EU – aquatic and marine environments. During the event, the current status of the emerging Blue (...) Read more.

The third edition of the Blue eco forum was held on November 16th in Barcelona, Spain, with the objectives of reflecting, debating and showing good practices for the integration of the ecosystem approach in the maritime spatial planning of tourism (...) Read more.

Dear blue economy stakeholders of the Med, We are glad to announce that the deadline to apply to pitch your blue economy products or services at the "Blue Invest in the Mediterranean" event has been extended to 28 November. Details (...) Read more.

Kenya is set to host the first ever Global High-Level Conference on Sustainable Blue Economy. The Conference will be held at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi on 26-28 November 2018. Over 4,000 participants from around the world will (...) Read more.

The European Commission and the Co-Presidency of the Initiative for the sustainable development of the blue economy in the western Mediterranean are glad to invite you to attend the "Stakeholder conference: Towards concrete ‘blue’ actions in the western Mediterranean", which (...) Read more.

Blue Invest in the Mediterranean 2019 A match-making event that brings together innovators and the financial community to sustainably develop the Blue Economy of the Mediterranean Sea basin, while protecting its marine resources. Following the successful Blue Invest event of (...) Read more.

The Interreg MED Programme will open its 3rd call for project proposals at the beginning of November 2018. It will stay open until late January 2019. The budget allocation for this call is approximately 30M€ (ERDF + IPA). The call (...) Read more.

The European Maritime and Fisheries Fund has launched a new call of a total budget of €18,7 million. The call focuses on 3 topics: Blue Labs, Blue Careers and Blue Economy. You can receive up to 80% co-financing for your (...) Read more.

Following the successful "Blue Invest" event of May 2018 in Brussels, and within the context of its work on blue investment, the European Commission (DG MARE) is hosting the “Blue Invest in the Mediterranean 2019” event. It will take place (...) Read more.

Which factors determine the distribution and presence of benthic macrophytes at the bottom of the Mediterranean? How do environmental conditions and humans affect and regulate the distribution of various marine flora species? What conditions favor the expansion of Posidonia oceanica (...) Read more.

In the framework of the event "2018 Blue Sea Land" (4-7 October, Mazara del Vallo, Italy) the UfM Secretariat organized the thematic panel “Marine litter and biodiversity: Plastic Busters MPAs in action in the Mediterranean”. The panel focused on the (...) Read more.

La première édition du Forum de la Mer - Bizerte 2018 s’inscrit dans le cadre de La Saison Bleue, projet ambitieux rassemblant près de 150 évènements dans tous les domaines mettant en valeur le littoral tunisien. Le Forum de la (...) Read more.

Ocean-related activities in the Mediterranean Sea generate an annual economic value of US$450 billion,making it the 5th largest economy in this region in terms of GDP, according to a report published last year by WWF and the Boston Consulting Group. (...) Read more.

The EU-fundedODYSSEA Project is getting ready to host its first summer school, on Operational Oceanography for Science, Business and Society, to be held at the campus of the Akontisma Village Hotel, NeaKarvali, near Kavala, Greece, between September 3 and 12, (...) Read more.

"We stress the importance of structuring Euro-Mediterranean cooperation in marine and maritime sectors to encompass a broad range of objectives comprising the creation of new, blue jobs and social well-being while also being mindful of sustainable development and the preservation (...) Read more.

Leading start-ups and entrepreneurs, industry agents, initiatives, change agents, policy and financial institutions working on applications of productive, circular and sharing economies in the Mediterranean will come together in Barcelona on 13-15 November 2018. The agenda of the SwitchMed Connect (...) Read more.

The 26th annual conference of the International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME) will be held in Mombasa (Kenya) on 11-14 September 2018. With the organization of the IAME 2018 conference, the Maritime Economists community not only opens up for the (...) Read more.

The Ocean Business 2018 is an international blue industry event that will be held in Lisbon (Gare Marítima de Alcântara), from 18th to 20th of September 2018, which aims to foster networking and debate around sustainable ocean business solutions in (...) Read more.

The 2018 Annual Economic Report on EU Blue Economy, has been published. The report was prepared jointly by the JRC and the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of the European Commission (DG MARE). It intends to measure the trends, (...) Read more.

The 4th Meeting of the WestMed Steering Committee will be held on 3 October 2018 in Algiers (Algeria). The meeting will have as priorities the adoption of the document summarizing common priorities and, on the other hand, the discussion on (...) Read more.

The High-level roundtable is organised by the MED Sustainable Tourism Community on 30 May 2018 (11.30-13.00) in Rome, at the UNINT University. It will gather international actors of tourism industry - from private and public sector - to raise key (...) Read more.

The BLUEMED CSA Consortium is pleased to announce the opening of its Call for Strategic Start-up Actions on Blue Growth in the Mediterranean. The Call is open to entities who are willing to partner up with at least three other (...) Read more.

The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) has launched the “TransLogMED” project at the first Mediterranean Conference on Maritime Transport and Logistics, held on 8-9 May in Ismailia (Egypt), under the auspices of H.E. Abdel Fattah El Sisi, President of Egypt (...) Read more.

EC DG MARE and IOC-UNESCO are jointly organising the kick-off event on 24-25 May in Brussels, Belgium. The event targets maritime spatial planners from across the world as well as experts directly involved in planning. Plenary sessions are foreseen on (...) Read more.

The launch of the UfM labelled-project Plastic Busters will take place in Siena (Italy) on 17 April 2018. The Mediterranean Sea is one of the areas most affected by Marine Litter (ML) in the world. The impacts of ML on (...) Read more.

Dates and location: Akontisma Hotel, Nea Karvali, Kavala, Greece 3rd - 12th September 2018 The overall objective of the 1st ODYSSEA Summer School is to stimulate a scientific dialogue and create a learning experience about operational oceanography in the Mediterranean (...) Read more.

A summer school on blue growth in the EU and the Euro-Mediterranean region, hosted by the Euro-Mediterranean University. Open to all motivated postgraduates from the region. The programme includes distance learning (11.6.2018-15.6.2018), lectures, field trips and counts on participant's active (...) Read more.

The European Commission's Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, the Bulgarian EU Presidency and the Municipality of Burgas are happy to invite you to European Maritime Day 2018. The conference will take place on 31 May and 1 June (...) Read more.

Whether you joined us in the previous editions or you are new to our growing community, SwitchMed Connect is definitely the best place to dive into the unique ecosystem of eco and social innovations in the Mediterranean. We are now (...) Read more.

The European Commission is looking for entrepreneurs active in the blue economy to take part in a high-profile event aimed at matching cutting edge companies with public and private investors. #BlueInvest 2018, the first European event of its kind will (...) Read more.

After the last meetings held in Naples in November 2017, the Mediterranean regions will gather again in the framework of their CPMR Intermediterranean Commission Working Groups and Political Bureau. The meetings will be held on 14-15 February in Cartagena (Murcia, (...) Read more.

The European Commission is pleased to announce the first match-making event in Europe between companies and investors in the Blue Economy. The OECD projects that the global maritime economy will grow at twice the rate of the mainstream economy by (...) Read more.

The first-ever European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy was adopted on 16 January 2018 with the aim to transform the way plastic products are designed, used, produced and recycled in the EU. Better design of plastic products, higher (...) Read more.

“Plastic Busters for a Mediterranean free from litter” is a UfM labeled project whose goal is to effectively tackle the issue of marine litter in the Mediterranean and thus contribute to the de-pollution of the Mediterranean Sea. In January 2018, (...) Read more.

The Erasmus Mundus Master Course on Maritime Spatial Planning (EMMCMSP) is a two-years advanced master program (120 ECTS) coordinated by a consortium of three high-rates European Universities: University Iuav of Venice, University of Sevilla and University of Azores. The consortium (...) Read more.

Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Mirko Šarović signed on 26 January 2018 the Malta MedFish4Ever Declaration, a multilateral strategy, proposed by the European Union, for safeguarding the future of the Mediterranean fishermen and (...) Read more.

The Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME), launched a call for proposals titled “Sustainable Blue Economy” with a view to accelerate the deployment of the blue economy across Europe while consolidating efforts and recent developments to support the (...) Read more.

The first edition of the Master in Sustainable Blue Growth organized by the OGS and the University of Trieste has started in January 2018 and will be held in Trieste in three sessions, on March, July and October 2018. The (...) Read more.

The UfM Conference held in Naples on 29-30 November highlighted the key role of the Blue Economy in sustainable development, jobs creation and investments Read more: http://ufmsecretariat.org/ufm-conference-blue-economy2017/

In December 2017, the project “Med Coasts for Blue Growth (MEDCOAST4BG )” received the UfM label. The project general objective is to analyze and promote the co-evolution of human activities and natural systems in coastal areas particularly or potentially devoted (...) Read more.

Algiers hosted the 14th Conference of Foreign Affairs ministers of the Dialogue 5+5 under the theme “Western Mediterranean: promoting an economic, social and inclusive development, shared and sustainable, faced with the common challenges of the region.” The European Commissioner for (...) Read more.

DIVECO2 aims to support the sustainable development of the fishery sector in Algeria, with a focus on marine and continental aquaculture. Associations in the field of fisheries and aquaculture in Algeria will attend training sessions held under the EU-funded Economic (...) Read more.