On 10 June 2025, as part of the Blue Week organised annually in Morocco,   AESVT Maroc (Association des Enseignants des Sciences de la Vie et de la Terre) and AMCDD (Alliance Marocaine pour le Climat et le Développement Durable), organised a webinar titled ‘Green ports, anchor points for the blue economy and regional maritime clusters: Experiences from the Mediterranean basin and challenges for Morocco.’ This was done together with the WestMED initiative – National Hub Morocco.

Around thirty people attended, including more than 25 representatives from civil society, academia and local authorities.

In the opening remarks by the Moroccan Hub of the WestMED Initiative, Mr Hassan Agouzoul, Mr Abdelaziz Janati (National Coordinator of the AMCDD) and Mr Abderrahim Ksiri (President of the AESVT) the importance of the blue economy for the equitable economic and social development of people in Morocco and around the world was emphasised. Abderrahim Ksiri (President of the AESVT) emphasised the importance of the blue economy for the equitable economic and social development of people in Morocco and around the world, and recalled in particular that the third United Nations World Ocean Conference (UNOC 3) – is currently taking place in Nice, with the main theme of ‘Accelerating action and mobilising all stakeholders to conserve and sustainably use the ocean’. In this context, the 1st ‘Africa for the Ocean’ summit was co-chaired by Morocco and France, during which HM King Mohammed VI sent a clear message on the urgent need to speed up the implementation of a national blue economy strategy in Morocco, and on the importance of South-South cooperation and regional integration around ocean areas.

After an introductory presentation on the state of play of the blue economy in Morocco by Mr Hassan Agouzoul (National Hub Morocco of the WestMed Initiative), Mr Leonardo Manzari (National Hub Italy of the WestMED Initiative) and Mr Matteo Bocci (Deputy Head of the EU Assistance Mechanism for Sea Basin Strategies) gave their presentations. Matteo Bocci (Deputy Head of the EU Assistance Mechanism for Sea Basins) gave their presentation, followed by a very interesting discussion on the need to mobilise Moroccan civil society and give it the skills and methods it needs to make an effective and structured contribution to the development of the blue economy in Morocco at national and regional level.

Here are some takeaways from the debate:

• It is important for Moroccan civil society, as well as the Association of Moroccan Regions, to join the alliance of maritime clusters or the relevant WestMED technical thematic groups (green shipping; aquaculture; sustainable tourism; blue skills; etc).
• To make these partnerships effective between the Westmed initiative and national civil society, it is essential that AESVT Morocco and AMCDD officially designate their representatives within the various Thematic Groups of the Westmed initiative (2 or 3 people) and send their requests notified by email to the National Hub Morocco in order to set up an institutional process of collaboration.
• The WestMED initiative’s thematic groups have been in existence since 2020, and their success and particular interest for their members stems mainly from the fact that the members of these groups highlight important issues that concern them and that are generally shared by the different countries represented. Morocco, for example, is very active in the sustainable transport group.
• Civil society and the academic world should be actively involved in preparing the roadmaps for setting up the pilot clusters in the Tangier-Tétouan-El Hoceima and Souss-Massa regions, but it is also important to prepare for the creation of maritime clusters in the 7 other coastal regions of the Kingdom of Morocco, e.g. Marrakech-Safi..
• Ports are currently being developed primarily as economic and technological hubs, but it is also vital to develop their cultural and social dimensions. The blue economy strategy currently being developed in Morocco will take this into account and, in particular, will give the necessary impetus to align the portfolio of necessary investments with that of educational programmes (e.g. creation of new skills in fishing, aquaculture, biotechnologies, desalination, eco-tourism, renewable energies).
• Collaboration between civil society and the academic world must be put in place to prepare the human resources needed to develop the blue economy. To begin developing this collaboration, it would be useful to contact the blue economy unit of the ministry responsible for the budget to participate in the preparation of the national blue economy strategy, which will be launched in the coming months.
• Technical resources exist at WestMED level: the Blue Skills & Ocean Literacy technical group, the blue skills development programme, the Mediterranean blue skills panorama, training on cluster management. The UNOC 3 recommendations on blue skills should also be taken into account..

Download the Agenda | Original event announcement

You will find below the recording of the webinar (in French) as well as the presentations.

Next webinar
A forthcoming webinar on 20 June 2025 at 10am (Moroccan time) will go into more detail about innovative blue skills, and will also include a training course to build the capacity of civil society to set up bankable ‘Blue Economy’ projects. More information/ registration

The European Ocean Pact was adopted on 5 June 2025, by the European Commission, just ahead of World Oceans Day on June 8.

The European Ocean Pact is a comprehensive strategy adopted by the European Commission to protect marine life, strengthen the blue economy, and support coastal communities. It brings together various EU ocean policies under a single, coordinated framework, focusing on six priority areas:

• Restoring Ocean Health: Strengthening efforts to restore marine and coastal ecosystems, expand marine protected areas, and improve ocean resilience.
• Boosting the Blue Economy: Supporting sustainable fisheries, promoting innovation in maritime industries, and launching a Blue Generational Renewal Strategy to attract young professionals.
• Supporting Coastal and Island Communities: Developing tailored strategies to enhance the resilience and economic sustainability of coastal regions.
• Enhancing Maritime Security: Strengthening coast guard cooperation, improving maritime surveillance, and reinforcing border security.
• Advancing Ocean Research and Innovation: Establishing an EU Ocean Observation Initiative to improve data collection and knowledge-sharing.
• Strengthening Ocean Diplomacy:  Expanding EU efforts in international ocean governance and combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.

Areas of action

To support Member States restore degraded coastal and marine habitats, the European Ocean Pact proposes to:

• Evaluate and revise the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive
• Encourage Member States to establish and manage marine protected areas
• Create European blue carbon reserves

What’s next

This Ocean Pact will be complemented by an Ocean Act to be presented by 2027, ensuring the implementation of its priorities. The Commission will also set up a high-level Ocean Board, bringing together representatives from various ocean-related sectors, and launch an EU Ocean Pact dashboard, providing a public, transparent and centralised platform to track progress towards its objectives.

For more information visit the European Commission website:  Full press release | Ocean Pact webpage

On 28 January 2025, EC funded project MEDIGREEN, in collaboration with the Horizon MPA Europe project, held its opening conference in Madrid with more that 120 participans in attendance (both in person and online).

MEDIGREEN, is a Mediterranean initiative advancing the European Green Deal through Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP).

The objective of this conference was to present the project to the stakeholders from its 4 designated key sectors and taking a first step to engage them in discussions regarding two main project research questions:

1. How can MSP help integrate the European Green Deal (EGD) objectives in these sectors? and
2. What are the main challenges and limitations at a Mediterranean regional scale?

MEDIGREEN released its conference report providing an overview of the presentations and outcomes of the day.

Download the report
Download background and agenda

About MEDIGREEN
Medigreen is a MSP project that specifically focuses on 4 key sectors: offshore renewable energy, fisheries, aquaculture, and nature protection, aiming to promote a sustainable blue economy.

Through these four sectors (work packages), MEDIGREEN investigates the impact of MSP on the European Green Deal, develops national actions for sectoral responses, and explores a Mediterranean pathway toward sustainability.

By fostering transnational cooperation, the project helps EU (France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Malta) and non-EU countries (Algeria and Tunisia) align their MSP strategies with environmental goals, ensuring a balanced approach to marine resource management.

Medigreen is an EC funded (EMFAF) project that runs from November 2024 to April 2027.

WestMED connection
The project is a leading contributor to the Mediterranean MSP Community of Practice (MED-MSP-CoP), with a team that coordinates both projects.

MEDIGREEN also plans several thematic workshops aimed at stakeholders in all WestED countries in 2025 and 2026.  Because of its relevance for the WestMED Initiative, it receives active support from several WestMED team members who act in dual roles, such as Samir Bachouche (WestMED Algeria/ CNRDPA), Thanos Smanis (WestMED central team/ Climazul) and Marta Pascual (WestMED Spain/ EU MSP Platform), who all three attended this conference as well.

More information
Visit the Medigreen website

 

 

Photo copyright: MPA Europe

On 23 May 2025, WestMED’s National Hub France, together with Pole Mer Mediterranée, organised a national stakeholder event in Mottpellier, to inform and discuss EC funding opportunities. Thirtyfive people joined in-person and online for this event that mirrored a previously organised similar national event for the Atlantic Strategy on May 13 in Brest.

This event in Montpellier was primarily dedicated to the funding call related to Horizon Europe cluster 6 on Fisheries, Aquaculture and Blue Biotechnologies. However, cluster 1: Health, was also briefly discussed.

On behalf of the the French ministry in charge of research with its national Horizon Europe focus (Ministere de l’enseignement supérieur et de la recherche), Fatiha Fort presented the open, ongoing Horizon Europe calls. She also pointed to the existence of specific hubs, serving as as accelerators, such as the EIC that supports start-ups and SMEs to develop and scale-up innovations. This was followed by a presentation by Salomé La Ragione, from Pôle Mer Méditerranée, who provided an overview of the countries eligible for the Horizon Europe calls.

Frédérick Herpers and Colin Ruel from WestMED’s French National Hub showcased the added value of the WestMED initiative with its Assistance Mechanism, offering different forms of support to national stakeholders; not only through WestMED’s French national hub but also through the Atlantic Strategy’s French National Hub, as France borders both sea basins.

The support offered by these hubs is twofold. On the one hand, it allows helping organisations with projects or project-ideas that strengthen the sustainable blue economy, find relevant project funding and/or suitable project-partners to form (often required) international consortia while also helping in the funding application process. On the other hand, the national hubs support the alignment of sustainable blue economy policy frameworks at local, national and regional (Western Mediterranean) level. This also includes exploring synergies with the other sea basins strategies such as the Atlantic, the Black Sea and the emerging North Sea (the Greater North Sea Basin Initiative) – thus allowing for an extensive network that can be tapped.

Clémence Le Corff, from Pôle Mer Méditerranée highlighted the strong link between the WestMED National Hub France and Pole Mer Mediterranée, showcasing the robustness and wide range of support available for project development, capitalizing on its strong experience in supporting organisations with EU funded projects.

Frédérick Herpers, French National Hub for the WestMED and the Atlantic and Philippe Dubois from Innofluence gave an example of how Expertise France also supports projects with capacity building on the Southern shore of the Western Mediterranean. The (EU supported) Blue Economy Program for Algeria allowed for the specific training of Algerian researchers related to EU project submission (for funding) and using the National Hub’s networks for helping to find project partners. It underscored the point that challenges are common for all countries bordering the Mediterranean sea basin and that cooperation and sharing practices across both shores are pivotal.

In this respect the event was also an opportunity to present the different WestMED National Hubs with networks that directly cover 10 countries in total. Some Tunisian, Morrocan and Algerian stakeholders attended online, underlining the importance and involvement of southern shore countries.

This event’s objectives to inform and discuss funding opportunities under Horizon 2025 were met thanks to the presentations and exchanges with the audience while demonstrating the existence and the readiness of the Assistance Mechanism (National Hub) to support.

Views and experiences were shared related to project submission, and participants were invited to consider project leadership and/ or partnership to apply for the new batch of funding opportunities under Horizon Europe.

The location of the event in Montpellier (Cité des métiers de demain) was strategic in order to engage stakeholder from Occitanie and regional authorities.

 

Visit the event announcement page (incl. agenda)

Join us on 23 May in Cork at the European Maritime Day (EMD) 2025, for the workshop ‘Maximising support for blue skills and ocean literacy.’

This event will explore how the EU Sea Basins Assistance Mechanism can play a stronger role in supporting blue skills development and ocean literacy across all three Sea Basins that have a Sea Basin Strategy in place: Western Mediterranean, Black Sea and Atlantic.

The workshop highlights the growing interest from various Sea Basin Strategy Presidencies and Coordinators to foster more cooperation on this topic; not only at the policy level but also through concrete, technical actions on the ground with support to projects.

The workshop will briefly presents the state of play in this area with practical examples and the ongoing study on blue skills by DG Mare and CINEA, while further exploring opportunities and untapped potentials.

The experts
This  workshop will feature several distinguished experts:

Matteo Bocci: Central team Member of the EU Sea Basins Assistance Mechanism, who will moderate the workshop, contribute to discussions on enhancing cooperation and explore synergies between the strategic blue economy initiatives.

 

Olga Mashkina: (ACTeon) coordinator of the EU4Ocean Coalition who will emphasise the role of ocean literacy by involving younger generations and training educators.

 

Alessandro Pititto: (Cogea) will present the recent study for a Framework on Blue Skills and Competencies across the EU | Preliminary results

 

Paul Hegarthy: Head of the National Maritime College of Ireland who will focus on the importance of providing  agile education and training for skills development by collaborating through partnerships

 

 

An  interactive Q&A session will allow the audience to finetune the work of the EU Sea Basins Assitance Mechanism for the years to come, including shaping the agenda for the upcoming EU Macro-regions and Sea Basins Day which will take place in September 2025 in Brussels.

When: 23 May 2025 | 13:30-14:45
Where: European Maritime Day 2025 | Cork-Irelend | Cork City Council – Millenium Hal

More information: visit the EMD website