The European Maritime and Fisheries Fund launches a new call to support the sustainable development of the blue economy SMEs across the European Union. The call for proposals constitutes one of the many stepping stones to the European Union’ Green Deal goals. Under the Blue Economy Window call, the SMEs can apply as single entities or consortia. The overall budget is €20 million.

Under the 2020 call, organisations can get up to 70% co-funding for their projects with an average EU contribution between €700.000 and € 2.500.000. Any for-profit SME based in the EU (single participant or a member of a consortium) can apply. The deadline of the call is 16 February 2021.

Link : https://ec.europa.eu/easme/en/news/blue-economy-window-call-just-launched

Six years after the first Union for Mediterranean Ministerial Declaration on Blue Economy, Ministers adopted on 2 February a new declaration, firmly committing to cooperate closely and address joint challenges in key blue economy sectors.

They agree to promote transformative policies and tools such as maritime clusters or maritime spatial planning, and support the overall shift towards low-emission technologies and circular blue economy. New joint activities and projects will be set up on a wide range of issues, including “blue skills”, marine litter, marine renewable energies and nature-based tourism.

In view of the preparation of the Interreg NEXT Black Sea Basin Programme, a Territorial Analysis for the eligible area has been prepared and the outcome was discussed during the meeting in December of the Joint Programming Committee (JPC).

The decision was to launch a 1st round of public consultations with the stakeholders in order to validate the preliminary conclusions regarding the Policy Objectives and Interreg Specific Objectives revealed as relevant to be supported.

Therefore, the consultations are now open and the stakeholders are invited to provide their opinions by filling in a questionnaire, which can be accessed at the following link https://blacksea-cbc.net/interreg-next-bsb-2021-2027/have-your-say-on-the-interreg-next-black-sea-basin-programme-2021-2027/

The Territorial Analysis and a summary of it in PPT can be accessed here https://blacksea-cbc.net/interreg-next-bsb-2021-2027/joint-paper-on-interreg-next-strategic-programming/

In support of the Common Maritime Agenda, the Blueing the Black Sea (BBSEA) Program supported by the World Bank and its partners would be aming at catalyzing blue economy investments for the Black Sea.  The initial step of building a coherent BBSEA Program is focused on the Pillar 1 “Save the Sea” that is aiming at reducing pollution in the Black Sea. Two instruments are considered for the realization of these first step: (i) PROBLUE Regional Analytical Work, executed by the World Bank (US$ 400,000) has been approved and will support national diagnostic on pollution and synthetize the results in a regional report and; (ii) the proposed GEF grant in an amount of US$ 6.4 million, financed under the International Water window. Although the proposed Project would benefit all Black Sea countries through knowledge exchange and standards building, national level activity would take place only in the four GEF eligible countries (Georgia, Moldova, Turkey and Ukraine) in accordance with GEF policies in the current context of the Black Sea. The ambition of the Project would be, however, to progressively include all Black Sea countries through additional financing. The Program is an instrument to enhance synergies of the IBRD financed projects in Black Sea Countries, including amongst others the Integrated Regional and Local Development Project in Georgia (P169747), the Moldova Water Security and Sanitation Project (P173076), theTurkey Integrated Landscapes Management Project (P172562) and the Assessment for Climate Change Impact Opportunities, and Priorities for Ukraine (P171986) and the Blue Economy policy notes in Bulgaria (P167719) and in Russia (P171509).

Click here to find more details on the BBSEA programm supported by the World Bank.

The Permanent International Secretariat of the Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC PERMIS) has been invited to act as the Executing Entity of the “Blueing of the Black Sea” Regional Project (BBSEA) supported by the World Bank. The project is funded by the Global Environmental Facility and aims at tackling marine pollution and catalyzing blue economy investments in the Black Sea region. This way, it will practically help Black Sea riparian countries substantiate their efforts in advancing a shared vision for a sustainable and better valued Black Sea backed by concrete projects, as stipulated in the 2019 Common Maritime Agenda.

To prepare the BBSEA, BSEC PERMIS is planning a series of national consultations in the Black Sea riparian countries, incl. the Republic of Moldova, to introduce the planned action, build partnerships with key institutional and private stakeholders at national level and seek critical inputs on the project architecture. The specific objective of the consultations consists in consulting the respective stakeholder communities (institutional, business, academia and civil society) working on marine pollution on the state of play, pressing issues and priorities related to pollution prevention, reduction and the control in the Black Sea, as well as the opportunities that result in the process. The results of the consultations will inform the architecture and implementation modalities of a planned “Blueing of the Black Sea” regional project.

Click here to find further information of the  BBSEA Regional Project

Bulgaria Blue Economy Policy Note: Towards a Blue Economy Development, by The World Bank . This Policy note reviews the challenges and opportunities that are central to the transition of the Republic of Bulgaria's key marine based economic sectors to sustainable blue economic development. The objective is to inform Bulgaria's vision and strategy for transitioning to a blue economy. The note highlights development risks and charts a way forward, factoring future challenges and drivers to substantially advance Bulgaria's policy and investment alignment with the European blue economy initiatives.

BlueMed would like to share the following information related to the Integrated advanced training course on Blue Biotechnologies, Aquatic products and Blue Bio-economy that will take place on the 15 – 19 March 2021 at the National Research Council of Italy, Messina (Sicily) and also online. 

The training course, jointly organised by BlueMed CSA and the BlueBio ERANET COFUND, is open for applications until 21st December 2020.
 

Specific objectives of the course

The advanced training course aims at contributing to the creation of ‘blue skills’, filling knowledge gaps while matching market opportunities via a joint effort among the scientific community, research infrastructures and business operators. The program will offer the opportunity of increasing awareness about marine biotechnology purposes, and also promoting the progress of the research results through the pipeline up to the market, identifying technological and legal bottlenecks step by step and prospecting solutions.

Encouraging teachers-students dialogue, the course will also be an opportunity to effectively interact with stakeholders and end-users.

At the end of the course the attendees are expected to:

1. Be aware of the significance of marine biotechnology in a broad sense.
2. Know the application fields, tools and opportunities.
3. Know the limits and identify overcoming strategies (e.g. available infrastructures).
4. Identify intra/interdisciplinary interaction strategies.
5. Know examples of best practices related to real-life experiences.
6. Be aware of the global market on marine biotech and development trends.
7. Identify internship opportunities with industrial partners on the basis of the products and services available.

Further information on the  draft programme  and registrations  here.

The latest implementation report of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) is now available. It highlights the most important achievements supported by the EMFF across the EU. The report is based on data provided by the Member States, reflecting the state of implementation at the end of 2019. The first data reflecting the impacts of Covid-19 are due to be reported by the Member States at the end of April 2021 and will feature in the next report.

The report shows that by the end of 2019, €3.21 billion of EMFF support was committed to operations in the Member States. This corresponds to 55.8% of the €5.69 billion EMFF funding available to the Member States.

€1.4 billion of the support committed contributes to the objective of enhancing the competitiveness of Small to Medium sized Enterprises, while €1.3 billion (i.e. 40% of support committed so far) is dedicated to preserving and protecting the environment. The remaining €0.5 billion was committed to a variety of topics, which notably include promoting quality employment and labour mobility.

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.

New report shows that while most fish stocks remain overexploited, the number of stocks subject to overfishing has decreased for the first time in decades.

According to a new report on the State of Mediterranean and Black Sea Fisheries (SoMFi 2020), released today, while 75% of fish stocks remain subject to overfishing, this percentage fell by more than 10 percent between 2014 and 2018. Exploitation ratios are down by a similar proportion. Taking into account newly assessed stocks, the number of fish stocks with high relative biomass has doubled since the last edition published in 2018.

Today, the Commission has welcomed the political agreement reached between the European Parliament and EU Member States on the new Erasmus+ Programme (2021‑2027).

Erasmus+ is a real European success story, consistently identified as one of the most successful initiatives of the EU. Since its inception in 1987, the programme has expanded considerably. It now covers all education and training sectors ranging from early childhood education and care, and school education to vocational education and training, higher education and adult learning. It supports cooperation on youth policy and promotes participation in sport.

The Common Maritime Agenda for the Black Sea (CMA) 2020 Regional Stakeholder Conference is the first regional event organised following the signature of the Bucharest Ministerial Declaration in May 2019 and the subsequent launch of the CMA implementation in February 2020, under the Bulgarian yearly coordination.

The conference builds on the main outcomes of the previous regional stakeholder event held in Istanbul in March 2019, with its main outcome being the establishment of a list of potential projects that could feed the CMA implementation. The current context is rather unusual and obliges CMA countries to consider the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to be able to identify a recovery response that can support resilient and sustainable development of blue economy sectors in the region.

Consequently, the objective of the 2020 Regional Stakeholder Conference is to jointly examine, in the light of the above-mentioned context and identified blue economy sectors, the outcomes of regional stakeholders events held in 2019, in order to take stock of the elements that can be retained to develop blue economy flagship projects in the years ahead. In this scope, cooperation with the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for the Black Sea and the Black Sea CONNECT project are of paramount importance and are well integrated into the conference contents. The event also aims to mobilise regional stakeholders, as they play a crucial role in the complex process of flagship projects identification and implementation. The event will provide them with an important opportunity to share their experience, exchange views and provide their concrete contribution with a regional and national perspective. The process aims to be bottom-up and collective: CMA national coordinators and policy stakeholders need to work together with the involved blue economy actors - public authorities, academia, business, civil society – in order to jointly shape flagship projects.

The conference will revolve around three main elements, starting with a high-level panel discussion on challenges and opportunities for a sustainable and resilient blue economy in the Black Sea in the new pandemic context. With this input, concrete project discussions will be kicked-off under three specific thematic sessions: coastal and maritime tourism, maritime transport, and fisheries and aquaculture. These are some of the most relevant sectors for the region in terms of gross value added and jobs creation that have been mostly impacted by COVID-19. Digitalisation and circular economy will be included in all three thematic sessions as essential transversal drivers to boost sustainable activities while enhancing resilience. As a final but key element, the conference will debate on the different streams of financing opportunities.

Link: https://blackseablueconomy.eu/save-date-10-december-2020-common-maritime-agenda-black-sea-regional-stakeholder-conference