Through the establishment of a cooperation framework within the western Mediterranean sub-sea basin, the WestMED initiative’s Technical Group on Sustainable Transport and Green Shipping aims to promote dialogue among key actors and contribute to the deployment of innovative solutions for clean maritime transport.

Following the conclusions of the Steering Committee of Rabat in October 2019, the WestMED Assistance Mechanism set up this Technical Group (TG) in order to address maritime transport environmental challenges and identify potential opportunities for its sustainable development, including funding and project development.

The TG became operational as of April 2020, and four meetings with relevant stakeholders have taken place since then, involving Port Authorities and Ministries for each WestMED country.

To support the discussions in each TG meeting, dedicated National Groups have been established in all concerned countries, with a larger group of national stakeholders being consulted under the coordination of the WestMED National Hubs.

A specific Action Plan including a number of potential project ideas is currently under preparation. In parallel, a review of the most suitable financing mechanisms to support such concept is undergoing.

Building upon a strong networking activity during its first two years of implementation, the WestMED Assistance Mechanism is promoting the organization of a closed meeting on November 30th to pave the way for the development of an integrated maritime clusters network within the Western Mediterranean.

Maritime clusters are essential actors in fostering the aggregation of local SMEs and large companies across a range of sectors in the Blue Economy, including through synergies with enterprises involved in in-land activities across complex value chains.

In order to foster the establishment and/or consolidation of Southern maritime clusters, it is crucial to increase North-South and South-South cooperation. Conceived as a step in this direction, this virtual meeting will involve representatives from existing national maritime clusters, who will share their cooperation experiences and explore their transferability.

The vulenrability of the tourism sector is a common challenge which requires joint solutions. There is thus scope in building partnerships in order to find effective solutions as well as identifying lessons as a means of building resilience. The webinar on the ICT services for post Covid-19 blue tourism (on November 10, 2020) in the Mediterranean region has specifially sought to address this challenge by harnessing the joint efforts of a number of stakeholders including those of the BlueMed, WestMed as well as the relationships identified through the Blue Roses and Mistral. The intention is to continue to develop these relationships and build on our synegies for the benefit of the maritime sector and its stakeholers.

The effective use of digitilisation requires investment in skills – those which are required to develop digitilisation as well as those required to use digitilisation.

Covid is making us greatly aware of the importance of digitilisation but it is also making us aware of the importance of relationships which are also experienced through travelling. We must ensure that these two elements are complementary in nature.

During the event the National Hub for Malta spoke about the vulnerability of the tourism sector, a sector which has practically been paralysed by the shock exerted by Covid. Furthermore the sector continues to be vulnerable to other shocks including those manifested by climate change.  The importance of the sector is evident through its key contribution in the generation of income and jobs across a number of  countries in the Mediterranean and thus it has thus never been as evident that the sector is in need of resilience.

Given the common challenges, stakeholders should seek partnerships and focus on joint solutions. Innovative solutions which draw on the lessons from different mutidisiplinaries are required. It is therefore imperative to build on the synergies that are brought about by initiatives such as the Westmed, which seeks to bring stakeholders together, and the Blue Med, which addresses research and innovation. The National hub also stressed that there are important partnerships which have been developed through Mistral and Blu Roses which should be nurtured further.

Full recording on YouTube

Tourism Event-15 December 2020

It is due to these considerations that the Westmed together with its partners will be organising another event on the tourism sector focusing on strengthening of ties and opportunities with southern partners as a means of developing a sustainable tourism sector in the Mediterranean.

Interested to attend? Let us know by clicking here