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WestMED Asistance Mechanism highlights importance of transferability of Sustainable Tourism Initiatives to Southern Shore Countries

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The Assistance Mechanism participated in an event on May 6, 2021 organised by the Sustainable Tourism Community where the importance of replicability and transferability of EU funded projects and was highlighted – including the importance of strengthening ties and opportunities with Southern partners. It was also noted that the Assistance Mechanism is actively engaged in supporting stakeholders to extend the benefits that are coming out of a number of projects on sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean.

The MED Sustainable Tourism Community counts on a group of 17 Associated partners (networks, actors participating in Mediterranean initiatives, tourism stakeholders, academia) with the role of ensuring links with other initiatives and to enlarge the impacts and the scope of the dissemination, transferring and capitalisation activities. The main questions discussed the event are:

  1. The identification of synergies with existing initiatives of participating  organizations
  2. Identification of collaboration among organization and the MED Community
  3. Involvement in the the transferring & capitalization of activities

Read the news article on the Interreg Med Sustainable tourism

 

For more information, please contact:
– Stephanie Vella: malta@westmed-initiative.ec.europa.eu
– Mohamed Lemine:   mauritania@westmed-initiative.ec.europa.eu

DG REGIO |  Call for expression of interest for Covid-19 Response and Recovery Partnerships: Pilot Action for Interregional Innovation | 7 September 2020

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This call was first published on DG REGIO’s website on the 27 July 2020.

 

Objective of the call

Under this Call, DG REGIO seeks expressions of interest from transnational partnerships of regional authorities, including ecosystems of regional stakeholders (universities, research centres, clusters, SMEs, etc.) willing to pilot interregional innovation partnerships. The objective is to incentivise business investment projects accelerating commercialisation and scale-up of inter-regional innovation.

Based on current Commission priorities, four new areas are proposed for cooperation in the framework of the interregional innovation partnerships (one partnership per topic):

  • COVID-19: mobilising regional capacities to accelerate innovation and rapid deployment of new technologies and solutions to address the COVID-19 pandemic; development of the medical value chain (e.g. medical products, devices to tackle COVID-19).
  • Circular Economy in Health: circular business models for medical products and services (e.g. remanufacturing and refurbishing of medical devices and equipment, circular economy in the context of health safety, management of medical waste).
  • Sustainable and Digital Tourism: innovative solutions for the recovery and the development of tourism (including climate neutral and cultural tourism) through new technologies, service concepts and business models. Partnerships covering both the private sector (including start-ups), the public sector and public-private partnerships (e.g. responsible, innovative and smart tourism across different value chains, applying circular business models and resource efficiency, use and management of natural resources, use of public spaces, services and infrastructures, uptake of new technologies, data collection, management and sharing).
  • Hydrogen technologies in carbon-intensive regions: innovative solutions based on hydrogen technology, which (a) respond to the specific challenges of carbon-intensive regions; and/or (b) capitalise on the specific strengths of carbon-intensive regions in the creation of a European value chain for FCH (e.g. through the conversion of existing coal mines, smelters or production facilities, particularly as regards raw materials).

Who can apply under this call?

An Expression of Interest can be submitted by a partnership made up of statutory regional authorities and their regional innovation ecosystems. Partnerships should be composed of regional authorities from at least four different EU countries and represent to the extent possible the whole value chain involving representatives of the “quadruple helix”: research, business, public administration and end-users from different countries.

Deadline for submission of expression of interest:
7 September 2020

How to apply?

The expression of interest should be submitted electronically to the following email address: REGIO-SMART-GROWTH@ec.europa.eu

Call for expression of interest PDF

Privacy PDF

Frequently asked questions PDF

More than 200 maritime stakeholders join online to discuss Italian MSP, Tourism and the new Italian-Tunisian cooperation

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On June 25th  and 26th  2020, the WestMED Italian National Hub, with the support of the National Coordinator and the WestMED Core Team, gathered over 200 stakeholders online. These were spread over four different sessions: two plenary thematic sessions in the morning and two networking sessions in the afternoon.

Considering the Italian co-presidency in 2020 – 2021, the event was given a high international profile, welcoming contributions from main European and Mediterranean experts, the EU Commission (DG MARE, DG GROW, DG MOVE, EASME), EU MSP Platform and UNESCO IOC – MSP GLOBAL, for the benefit of Italian stakeholders.

Parallel to the National Event, the WestMED Technical Group on Green Shipping held its second online meeting, advancing on the definition of possible common project ideas on a better use of LNG and clean energies in maritime transportation.

On June 25th, the topic of the day was Maritime Spatial Planning as a tool to enhance any harmonic Blue Growth in Italy and in the Western Mediterranean. It included the state of play of the Italian process towards the March 2021 target of the MSP National Plan and its importance for the Metropolitan Coastal cities, the infrastructures for energy and maritime transport, the combination between human coastal activities and the preservation of maritime habitat.

On June 26th, the need to identify a new sustainable model for tourism was in the spotlight, with a focus on trying to offer the sector a sustainable perspective, mitigating the current impact of COVID-1 and adapting to the new scenario imposed by the accelerated climate change.

As a second initiative, since the signature of their cooperation agreement, Italian and Tunisian maritime clusters held a b2b session and focused on four main topics: high maritime education and VET, Maritime Surveillance, Fishing and Aquaculture, Nautical sector. This in order to already define some priority actions to be implemented from September onwards.

Considering the appreciation expressed by the stakeholders, the Italian WestMED National Hub and WestMED National Coordinator foresee the opportunity to implement further occasions of networking, as a follow-up of the emerged partnership opportunities.

 

Promotion du Tourisme Bleu en Méditerranée

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L’UpM se joint aux efforts régionaux visant à promouvoir le tourisme bleu dans la région méditerranéenne. Les 30 et 31 octobre dernier, l’UpM a organisé un conférence intitulée « Promotion du Tourisme Bleu en Méditerranée » réunissant plus de 80 acteurs des secteurs de l’économie bleue et du tourisme des deux côtés de la région euro-méditerranéenne. Cette conférence a permis d’échanger sur les différents points de vue, les idées, les meilleures pratiques et les réussites observées dans ce domaine.

Plus d’information ici.