Last week, Catalonia led the ‘COM&CAP MarInA-Med’ conference which is held by the Committee of the Regions to present the outcomes and recommendations of 13 MED projects in the field of European maritime policy within the Mediterranean.

 

The COM&CAP MarInA-Med (COMmunication and CAPitalization of Maritime Integrated Approach in the Mediterranean Area) project encompasses communication and capitalization of 13 European projects on integrated maritime policy strategies financed by the European territorial cooperation MED Programme.

 

The Directorate-General for Foreign Relations and the Ministry of Territory and Sustainability are currently leading the project along with the Inter Mediterranean commission CPRM, AVITEM, Arc Llatí and the Italian region of Molise.

 

Iban Rabasa, Catalonia’s Director General for Foreign Relations took part in the event alongside Marta Subirà, Director General for Environmental Policy and Francesco Cocco, Secretary-General of the Euroregion Adriatic-Ionian. Other participants included Eleni Marianou, the Secretary-General of the CPRM and Traja Richard, coordinator of the Joint Technical Secretariat of the MED Programme along with several members of the European Commission and other institutions involved with the projects.

 

The Director General for Foreign Relations, Iban Rabasa highlighted that the main challenge of the project is to "lead the transformation of scientific hubs and opinions of the social, economic and environmental sector into well-defined policy actions to foster sustainable, inclusive and integrated development for the Mediterranean in the medium and long term". "It is necessary to put data into action, this is what really makes the difference" declared Rabasa.

 

 

 

The COM&CAP MarInA-Med project is responsible for collecting, processing and disseminating the key results of the 13 maritime projects (MED-TRENDS, MED-IAMER, SMARTSPORTS, CAIMANs, POSEIDON, CORINTHOS, BLUENE, ENERCOAST, FISHMpMBLUE, MITOMED, Tourmedassets, MERMAID and NEMO) through an information exchange system, by organizing high-level events and through the publication of news and political papers addressed to specific stakeholders.

 

The research projects, which relate to issues such as the environment, fishing, tourism, ports and blue energies, propose new ideas to improve environmental conditions and sustainable growth while identifying several sectors to enhance employment gaps in the Mediterranean maritime industry with the use of maritime and marine resources in these areas.

 

The final conference will be held in Barcelona at the beginning of June this year.