The Baltic, the Med, and the Black Sea together for cross-regional cooperation on blue growth

The workshop on ‘Added value of cross-regional cooperation’ jointly organized by BONUS represented by Andris Andrusatis, BLUEMED by Andrea Barbanti, and the Black Sea Commission by Irina Makarenko, within the EMD2018 in Burgas has been held on the 31st of May. Attended by about 100 stakeholders, the meeting chaired by Kathrine Angell-Hansen from JPI Oceans has been a first opportunity to discuss on how to cooperate among sea-basins. Each initiative, at different level of maturity, is making efforts to pooling resources towards the implementation of blue growth objectives thorugh basin oriented actions. Nevertheless, cross-basin cooperation is recognized fundamental in order not only to share practices and methodologies but also knowledge, looking forward to collaborate on common topics, including climate change and circular economy, thus unlocking increasing opportunities.

The day before, BONUS and BLUEMED were also invited to share processes at the 5th workshop of experts from Black Sea countries that are working since last year, with the support of the EC, to develop the Black Sea Strategic Research and Innovation Initiative. The Burgas Vision Paper addressing the key pillars on which the strategic agenda will be built has been launched by Sigi Gruber from the EC-DG R&I during the plenary session at the EMD2018.