• Tuesday 14, May 2024

UfM Mediterranean Green Week

The UfM EU and Jordan CoPresidency and Secretariat are pleased to announce that the MED GREEN WEEK will take place from 14-16 May 2024 in Istanbul, Türkiye.

 The Med Green Week will include the UfM Regional Platform and Working Groups on Environment, Climate Change, Energy and Water, and will aim at sparking discussions, boosting participation and fostering collaboration. 

 Impactful and dynamic cross-thematic workshops will also be organised, ensuring the contribution/s of a wide range of key actors committed to collaborate for a sustainable and inclusive future in the Mediterranean region.

 Kindly save the date in your calendar. More detailed information will be shared in the coming weeks.

• Thursday 28, Mar 2024

Connecting Europe Days 2024 - Don’t forget to sign up!

Don’t forget to sign up for Connecting Europe Days 2024!

Spaces are filling-up quickly for Connecting Europe Days 2024, Europe’s mobility flagship event, on 2-5 April in Brussels, Belgium. Register now to secure your spot. 

The Connecting Europe by Air side event at Brussels Airport will delve into how aviation can help ensure the connectivity and multimodality of the EU transport network. The role of collaboration, research, and financing as a catalyst for the aviation sector’s decarbonisation will also be discussed. Participants can explore innovative EU funded aviation projects at the on-site exhibition. Full programme here.

The conference will host a Marketplace for innovative companies, project promoters and initiatives from the public and private sector across Europe to pitch their transport projects. Interested to share your ideas? Apply here before 18 March.

Connecting Europe Days will bring together more than 2,500 participants from all EU Member States and neighbouring third countries, in particular the Western Balkan partners as well as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia. Participants include Ministers, politicians, financial institutions, industry representatives, transport stakeholders and the European Commission and related agencies. 

The Connecting Europe Days 2024 will be the place to discuss concrete measures and exchange good practices on creating a sustainable, smart and resilient, transport and mobility network in Europe. It will take stock of the ambitious goals set out in the EU Green Deal and the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy. 

The event is being organised together with the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU. 

Visit our website for the programme and speakers. Don’t forget to take a look at the different side events and networking opportunities taking place throughout the Connecting Europe Days, including a cocktail hosted for all participants by Infrabel on 3 April. 

• Thursday 07, Mar 2024

Survey! Public consultation about Interreg's future pos...

European Territorial Cooperation (Interreg) is a key European Union (EU) instrument, that strengthens cooperation between regions and countries within the EU and beyond. As part of the EU’s Cohesion Policy, Interreg plays a vital role in promoting regional development and reducing economic disparities. 

The purpose of the current survey is to foster an open and meaningful debate about Interreg's future, by collecting your thoughts, as Interreg NEXT Black Sea Basin Programme* stakeholders, or citizens living in the Black Sea Basin, about what currently works, what needs improvement, what is missing and how a brighter future for Interreg can be envisaged. 

Completing the survey will take about 10 minutes, depending on the variety of your insights in the different aspects of Interreg. The survey is split in two parts, independently accessible, depending if you are an organization, or a citizen. The consultation is available in English and we would appreciate your comments also in English.

We would also appreciate your support by forwarding this email to your team, partners or member organizations, in order to collect as many responses as possible and to cover as many relevant examples from all over the Black Sea Basin region.

Answer the survey, at the latest by 15th of April, 2024, by accessing the following link, and you stand a chance to win a backpack full of TECH promotional items🎁*:

The survey is opened until the 15th of April, 2024 and available at

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdxrFwgCBbEYaU4X_OCegxYBNilxcNOXNKHGZt6_PQtkiFJog/viewform

If you have any queries concerning the survey, please contact us at blacksea-cbc@mdlpa.gov.ro.

• Thursday 25, Jan 2024

The 2nd BRIDGE-BS newsletter has been released!

Read more:

https://mailchi.mp/0b455c8dd6ca/welcome-to-the-first-bridge-bs-newsletter-9359075

• Thursday 25, Jan 2024

Follow the Black Sea Young Ambassadors Program!

Read more:

https://bridgeblacksea.org/index.php/young-ambassadors/

• Monday 15, Jan 2024

Toural Project!

                                             Press Release 

New tourism models for the sustainable development of rural & remote areas

EU’s rural remote areas demonstrate a wide range of qualities, while facing unique challenges. A major challenge is the diversification of economic activities beyond the traditional agriculture-farming-forestry sectors, as enablers for stimulating economic growth. Evidently, tourism could become an anchor for the economic development of rural and remote areas. A new just approved EU funded project is going to address these types of challenges in the next 3 years.

Motivated by the above considerations, TOURAL focuses on cultural & creative tourism as drivers for sustainable development, paying at the same time a premium to the EU Tourism Transition Pathway requirements, within the context of smart multi-destination and multi-dimensional tourism offerings empowered by macro-regional tourism cooperation. TOURAL proposes a model to support the touristic development of participating rural regions, balancing the growth of their urban clusters with the untapped growth potential of their remote and rural cells. 

The project’s approach is multi-dimensional in terms of addressing complementary tourism verticals/niche sectors (underwater cultural & nature heritage tourism, cultural & creative tourism, cultural science tourism, silver tourism); participatory in terms of co-designing policy pathways and tourism offerings/services, co-creating business models and tourism products, and co-validating small-scale tourism services implementations; and integrated in terms of joint planning and business development with integrated value-chains, policymaking and cross-border cooperation, at macro-regions level. The scope of foreseen interventions includes 3 regions from the Adriatic-Ionian macro-region (Italy, Croatia, Greece), and 3 regions from the Black Sea Basin (Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine).

TOURAL will develop multidimensional models of tourism verticals driving the sustainable balanced growth among rural & remote grids and urban clusters of rural regions fostering macro-regional cooperation. The project is implemented in the framework of Horizon Europe Programme, while its total budget (funded by the European Union) amounts to 2.999.927€. Its duration is 36 months and consists of 20 partners coming from Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, Croatia, Albania, France, Türkiye and Ukraine.

We invite you all to follow the Project’s social media accounts in order to be updated on its activities:

*Twitter: www.twitter.com/Touralproject 

* Instagram: www.instagram.com/touralproject/

* Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/101481925

* Facebook: www.facebook.com/touralproject

• Tuesday 28, Nov 2023

BLACK SEA BLUE ECONOMY ACCELERATOR CALL IS LOOKING FOR ...

BSEC PERMIS is looking for individual experts for the implementation of the Black Sea Blue Economy Accelerator (https://bridgeblacksea.org/index.php/black-sea-accelerator) targeting Black Sea business opportunities.

Deadline for application: 5th December 2023 noon time (GMT+3).

We are launching a call for applications that target experts/consultants in the context of the “BRIDGE-BS: Advancing Black Sea Research and Innovation to Co-Develop Blue Growth within Resilient Ecosystems", H2020-funded project.

The call is open for experts with a proven expertise in terms of:

1) Support SMEs and solution providers in assessing and developing business strategies, as well as increasing their ability to successfully pitch towards international impact investors;

2) Understanding of Blue Economy, preferably in the context of the Black Sea and other EU sea basins, across the different sectors and activities covered by the Accelerator.

3) Although a strong international background and worldwide/international expertise is essential, any previous experience in working with blue economy and/or working in the Black Sea region would be welcome.

The contract, which will be in support of the BRIDGE-BS Accelerator team, will be for 6 months, starting from 7th of December 2023 and will allow work from distance (the expert/consultant could be based outside Istanbul). No travels are envisaged.

The tasks will include:

a) Business planning and business modelling

➢ Streamlining of business planning / business models;

➢ Exposure to good practices and concrete examples;

➢ Advanced advice for concrete issues identified.

b) Investment pitching and funding support 

➢ Understanding of investors’ expectations;

➢ Assessment and support of pitching abilities;

➢ Opportunities for concrete pitches and training.

c) Sectoral markets and technological aspects

➢ Further understanding of relevant market/technological aspects;

➢ Exposure to international good practices and concrete advices.

d)  Support a workshop with the BRIDGE partners to gather from them BRIDGE BS exploitable services/results or tools for business upscaling

Interested candidates must send their CVs and a detailed list of references to demonstrate their expertise on the above-mentioned topics to the following email: bsvkc@bsec-organization.org.

• Wednesday 15, Nov 2023

Save the date - European Maritime Day: Join EMD in Sven...

The 2024 edition of the European Maritime Day will take place in Svendborg, Denmark, on 30-31 May. Co-organised by the European Commission, the City of Svendborg and the Danish Maritime Authority, this fully-fledged physical event will feature inspiring high-level panels, attractive workshops, innovative pitching sessions, and an exhibition area.

To make the EMD2024 accessible to the widest audience possible, the opening and high-level sessions will be available via streaming to the remote participants.

For the first time, the EMD2024 edition will have on the programme the second annual event of the European Blue Forum, adding even more opportunities to exchange on challenges and opportunities in the EU sustainable blue economy sector.

With hundreds of years of maritime history and with constant involvement in the blue economy, Svendborg will be a great host of the EMD 2024, offering the participants plenty of opportunities to connect with peers, exchange views, showcase achievements and get up to speed with the latest policy developments in the maritime world.

The detailed programme of EMD 2024, the call for workshops, and for exhibitors will be announced closer to the date. Stay tuned!

Follow our news and sign up to the EMD Newsletter!