Med Maritime Projects Launch Event: An integrated maritime approach toward Blue Growth in the Med

The 14 Med Maritime projects approved by the Med Programme under its last call for proposals in October 2013 and dealing with Maritime Innovation and Economic Development (priority 1), Environmental Protection (priority 2), Transport and Accessibility (priority 3), and Governance and Policy Response (priority 4), were launched together last on 15-16 July 15-16 in the framework of a common event hosted in Marseilles, France.

Organized by the COM&CAP MarInA-Med project (the only joint communication and capitalization action approved under priority 4), the launch event gathered more than 80 participants from the 14 projects, representing research centres, regional and local authorities, private entities, and port authorities, among others. It aimed at presenting the Action Plan detailing the communication and capitalization activities to be implemented toward the promotion of Blue Growth. At the same time the cross‑fertilization dynamics foreseen by the COM&CAP MarInA-Med project were started in order to begin exchanges of information to capitalize between the 14 projects, foster future synergies also with external key stakeholders, and promote the integrated approach of this last call.

These cross-fertilization activities, divided into a project 'speed-dating' experience (91 meetings in total for the projects to find out about each other, their respective objectives and deliverables) and five thematic working groups (to be linked to various communication and capitalization events throughout the whole year), allowed the 14 projects to start reflecting on how crossing their deliverables, activities, and advocacy actions could contribute to the integrated promotion of Blue Growth in the Mediterranean.  The forthcoming communication and capitalization publication from the COM&CAP MarInA-Med project will therefore be the test version of its Newsletter, to be sent out by the end of July. This newsletter will present the projects and the goal of the Med Programme call for an integrated maritime approach in the Mediterranean, and will be the first of various publications and tools to be completed by the COM&CAP MarInA-Med project, and exploited by the other 13 projects to reach this goal.

Indeed, a web-platform—to be launched in September 2014—will also be used as a centralizing tool for the projects to communicate and disseminate their results to relevant identified targets such as EU Institutions, Regional and Local authorities, the private sector, Agencies, Port Authorities, EU Cooperation programs, etc. The COM&CAP MarInA-Med project will exploit all the tools and exchanges produced for drafting a Policy Paper to be addressed to the identified targets and published by the end of the project’s implementation (foreseen May 2015).

In this sense and following this fruitful launch event, the IMC-CPMR, jointly with the COM&CAP MarInA-Med lead partner, the Generalitat de Catalunya, and the other partners AVITEM, the Molise Region, and ARCO LATINO, looks forward to the fulfilment of this initiative for an integrated maritime approach for the Mediterranean, in order to successfully contribute to and participate in the implementation of the next Med Cooperation Programme for 2014-2020.

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