Emerging impacts of regional cooperation in the Mediterranean Sea: a special focus on green shipping and sustainable coastal tourism | 16 April 2024 | Athens, Greece

16 April 2024 - 16 April 2024

Our ocen conference side event announcement with image of the mediterranean and two multi-cultural and people shaking hands in the backgroundThis is a side event during the OUR OCEAN Conference 2024 in Greece

Time: 11:00-11:50
Venue: Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Athens – Greece
Registration: You can register for the conference on the OUR OCEAN website
Note: in-person only. Max 35 seats available. Be sure to come early to secure your seat

Description

Since 2017, the WestMED Initiative for the sustainable development of the blue economy in the Western Mediterranean has been building bridges between Southern Europe and North Africa.

At the same time, relations have been strengthened between the countries bordering the whole Mediterranean and acted as a pilot for  regional cooperation.

The WestMED Initiative supports project development and connects potential partners and stakeholders across the sea basin. Since then, more than 100 project ideas coming from stakeholders and actors have been supported and more than 40 projects have been approved and funded by relevant EU and multilateral programmes, worth about 55M€.

In this workshop, 3 ongoing projects will be showcased as successful examples of cooperation across the sea basin, focused on green shipping and decarbonisation of the maritime industry, sustainable tourism in coastal areas and blue skills.

Agenda

11:00-11:10 Opening remarks: Aligned Objectives of Our Ocean and WestMED Initiatives on Sustainable Blue Economy. By Marisa Lameiras da Silva (Director General for Maritime Policy and WestMED Co-Presidency, Portugal)
11:10-10:20 WestMED: emerging impacts of regional cooperation in the Mediterranean Sea. By Thanos Smanis (Synergies Expert, WestMED Initiative, Greece)
11:20-11:40 Presentation of successful European funded projects on Sustainable Green Shipping and Sustainable Tourism:

1.     GreenMED project (Manolis Annetis, Project coordinator from Ethnicon Metsovion Polytechnion, Greece)

2.     WeMED NATOUR and ECO-Cruising FU TOUR projects (Marika Mazzi Boem, Project coordinator from X23 The Innovation Bakery, Italy)

3.     Blue Ports project (Theocharis Tsoutsos, Project coordinator from Technical University of Crete)
11:40-11:50 Open discussion