12 March 2025, Barcelona – The Union for the Mediterranean and Interreg NEXT MED, the largest EU-funded transnational cooperation programme promoting socioeconomic development and environmental initiatives in the Mediterranean Basin, have reached an agreement formally extending collaboration between both parties for at least another three years.

The Memorandum of Understanding, which highlights how both Euro-Mediterranean institutions strive to reinforce political, socioeconomic, and cultural ties in the region, was signed by UfM Secretary General Nasser Kamel and Director General of the Interreg NEXT MED Programme Giovanna Medde. The agreement, significantly, foresees mutual participation in events and conferences and, when relevant, extends invitations to participate in internal meetings as observers. It will also see the organisations continue to exchange information on projects of common interest, identify joint coordination actions and raise awareness of regional challenges together.

“The UfM and Interreg NEXT MED are united by the common goal of enhanced dialogue and cooperation between Mediterranean countries. The indisputable success of our partnership over the years is a positive sign for the future,” said UfM Secretary General Nasser Kamel. “The UfM remains convinced of the long-term constructive influence of this alliance and looks forward to three more years of shared accomplishments.”

The long-standing partnership between these Euro-Mediterranean institutions has resulted in a multitude of impactful actions including Interreg NEXT MED’s participation in the UfM-sponsored Mediterranean Pavilion at the latest three United Nations Climate Change Conferences, its commemoration of the anniversary of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, and involvement in thematic UfM forums on youth empowerment or the blue economy, among others.

“The UfM-Interreg NEXT MED agreement has been instrumental in enhancing coordination between both institutions,” said Giovanna Medde, Director General of the Interreg NEXT MED Programme. “It is essential for developing and implementing jointly-owned solutions to the complex challenges our region faces. I am confident that renewing it will help us move closer to achieving our common goal of a more integrated, peaceful and prosperous Mediterranean.”

Source UfM website

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 the EU maritime transport is therefore pivotal to ‘green’ the EU blue economy at large (including tourism, aquaculture, biotechs, marine renewable energy).

But a green transition for the EU maritime transport sectors requires a common vision to equip ports and fleets in a coherent way, within a network capable to ensure their operativity.

Therefore, within the work of the WestMED Technical Group on Green Shipping,the strong need emerged to re-configurate the shipbuilding supply chain and create the production capacity to equip the fleets with propulsion systems, using alternative fuels.

Shipbuilding Propulsion Systems Alliance
For this reason the WestMED Technical Group on Green Shipping, the EU Seabasin Assistance Mechanism, promoted by CINEA and DG Mare, have supported a dedicated Smart Specialisation (S3) Thematic Partnership in this area, encountering the interest of the impacted territories where shipbuilding operations are mostly located, and involving different stakeholders – authorities, research and innovation centres, businesses and investors.

 The newly launched S3 Thematic partnership “Shipbuilding Propulsion Systems Alliance”, led by Region Liguria, Região capital de Portugal, Region Attica, brings together 26 partners – including Regional Bodies, Businesses, Cluster Organisations, Research & Innovation Centres and Civil Society Organisations – from 5 EU Member states  and 4 non EU partner countries spread across 3 EU Sea basins (Mediterranean Atlantic, Black Sea).

 The initiative, more specifically, aims at:

• Speeding  up the modernisation and renewal of the supply chains related to the production/refitting of propulsion systems, as well as to the delivery of the fuel, for each type of alternative fuel.
• Accelerating the replacement/refitting of traditionally propelled fleets to diversify, renew, revitalise the sector across Europe and its neighbourhoods;
• Fostering the adoption of innovative fiscal and financial schemes, to allow shipowners, shipbuilders and related stakeholders to achieve greater impact and sustainability for their investments.

For more information on this Partnership, visit the  S3 Community of Practice page of the European Commission

Three full days have been dedicated to enhancing synergies among key actors in the Mediterranean basin: The WestMED Steering Comittee (SC) on October 1, The UfM Regional Platform on the Blue Economy on October 2, and the WestMED Hackathon on October 3, 2024.

WestMED Steering Committee
The WestMED Steering Committee (SC) was hosted by the Region of Algarve and the Portuguese Co-Presidency.

The meeting gathered representatives from the WestMED countries, as well as the Observers, DG MARE, CINEA, UfM and the team of the Assistance Mechanism.

A key milestone was presented at the SC meeting in terms of cooperation and clustering within the Mediterranean region. On 29 September 2024, the first maritime cluster has been officially established in Libya with the support of the WestMED Initiative. This maritime cluster will be rolled out in the coming months. (see article on this announcement).

Updates on the WestMED Technical Groups (TGs) were presented by the Assistance Mechanism, in particular to the recently approved TG on Sustainable Tourism. There has been a call for Tourism experts to join, and there has already been a stakeholder group meeting on September 6 and an advisory group meeting on September 18 to prepare for the official launch at the Sun&Blue Conference on November 21.

The WestMED countries are fully committed  towards a more sustainable and resilience tourism section in the Mediterranean. Some countries are working to promote more environmental-friendly tourism alternatives such as pesca-tourism and sustainable scuba diving at artificial reefs.

In view of the willingness of the WestMED Initiative towards enhancing more synergies and cooperative dialogue with the African countries, DG MARE presented the Strategic Dialogue on the Africa-Europe Ocean Economy. A scoping report has been produced outlining way to strengthen cooperation between Africa and Europe on ocean governance and blue economy, from which to forge a mutually beneficial roadmap for the two continents in line with the 2030 UN Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

UfM Regional Platform on Sustainable Blue Economy

Back-to-back to the WestMED Steering Committee, the UfM Regional Platform took place on 2 October 2024

The UfM Secretariat introduced the most recent advancements on the update of the Roadmap for the implementation of the 2021 UfM Ministerial Declaration on Sustainable Blue Economy. On the monitoring, reporting and evaluation mechanism, an exhaustive exercise is being done based on 657 actions, activities and projects of regional cooperation in the Mediterranean.

The UfM is going to shortly launch the new edition of the UfM Sustainable Blue Economy Publication, which provides an update on the status of the key blue economy sectors in the Mediterranean, including transversal aspects such as blue skills, marine research and funding frameworks. The previous edition of this 2021 publication can be found here.

On this occasion, the UfM Regional Plan for Transport was presented by Francesc Carbonell. Further synergies are being sought between the WestMED Technical Group on Green Shipping and Ports and the UfM Regional Plan for Transport, to address the common challenges of the sector in the Mediterranean.

Further updates were presented in terms of the Community of Practice on MSP (Smart Specialization Strategies – S3, Mission Restore Our Oceans by 2030 and BlueMissionMed, Interreg Euro-Med and strategy dialogue on the Africa-Europe Ocean Economy.

On the funding opportunities, updates were presented in the Blue Mediterranean Partnership, Interreg Next-MED and the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership.

WestMED Hackaton 2024

On 3 October 2024, 85 stakeholders from more than 20 countries met in Vilamoura, Portugal to discuss project ideas and possible funding sources. This was already the 3rd hackathon after previous sessions in Palermo (2019) and Malta (2022).

Read the full article

Download the agenda

Watch all WestMED Hackathon ’24 presentations: dedicated playlist on WestMED’s YouTube channel

Marisa Lameiras da Silva (Portugal) and Demba Diawara (Mauritania) co-chairing the WestMED Steering Committee | Copyright photos: DGPM