WestMED-support outlined at Forum Oceano webinar on Portugal–Italy Blue Strategic Partnerships
Click here for the webinar recording (YouTube)
On 27 January 2026, Forum Oceano (also Portugal’s National Hub for the WestMED and Atlantic) organised a high level webinar titled: ‘Portugal–Italy: Opportunities for Blue Strategic Partnerships.’
This webinar was co-organised with the institutional partnership of the Embassy of Italy in Portugal (Ambasciata d’Italia a Lisbona), and marked a significant milestone in strengthening bilateral cooperation within Europe’s blue economy.
The discussion generated valuable strategic alignment around priority areas for cooperation, including fisheries and aquaculture, nautical and coastal tourism, ship repair and shipbuilding, and ocean monitoring and observation, while also highlighting the available support instruments for international collaboration and business development.
With nearly 100 participants from companies, institutions, clusters, and public bodies, this initiative confirmed the strong interest and clear momentum for building structured and long-term strategic partnerships between Portugal and Italy.
WestMED’s support to forming partnerships
Leonardo Manzari, from WestMED Italy, explained how the WestMED Assistance Mechanism assists with finding project partners and submitting proposals to access EU funding. He also highlighed the support to public administrations to draft policies in line with the Sustianable Blue Economy priorities of the European Commission, CINEA and the Union for the Mediterranean. As a result, more than 200 projects have been supported with 100 million euro of investments in the Blue Economy. Next to this, he highlighted the role of the 6 thematic stakeholder groups and the strong basis for a strategic partnership between Italy and Tunisia that was already the focus of discussions during a 2023 WestMED workshop at SeaFuture in LaSpezia, Italy’s leading international maritime exhibition.
Also, Giorgio Ricci from Cluster BIG, presented their work including their participation in the MEDBAN, CALLMEBLUE and MARMED projects – all facilitated by the WestMED Maritime Cluster Alliance.
In this respect one of the main conclusions by the event’s moderator, Goncalo Santos, was to emphasise the importance of Portuguese and Italian clusters as bridge builders between the two countries’ ecosystems.
The event forms part of Forum Oceano’s ‘Blue Internationalization’ Webinar Series. Check their LinkedIn page for more information regarding upcoming webinars or watch the recordings on their dedicated youtube channel.
Watch the agenda and the webinar recording on YouTube
