How can we build a community of resilient people in the Mediterranean area? How can we ease the shift to a greener way of living?

On 13th October, in the frame of the EU Week, ADRION, ENI CBC MED and Interreg MED Programmes successfully organised the workshop Accelerating the Mediterranean Green Transition: Contributions from the Interreg Programmes.

The Programmes have shared stories of cooperation and presented examples of communities and projects which have developed innovative solutions as well as kept raising the debate on sustainable growth. Those experiences have shown to which extent Interreg cooperation is able to support green transition.

Mercè Boy Roura, Project coordinator and Head of Governance for Sustainability at the BETA Technological Center/University of Vic (Central University of Catalonia, Spain) and Coordinator of the Interreg MED Green Growth community, presented the main outcomes of the community, which created a network of projects aiming to facilitate synergies among actors of the quadruple helix. Ms Boy Roura said that the activities of the community, involving 17 projects with more than 165 partners from 13 countries of the Euro-MED region, inspired innovative, green, and circular business models and influenced public policies on a climate-neutral and a more competitive Mediterranean region.

Ramy Boujawdeh, Deputy General Manager of Berytech in Lebanon, reported on three ENI CBC MED projects supporting green entrepreneurship in several sectors; from cosmetics, turning waste from winemaking into innovative commercial health products, to manufacture, promoting circular economy ventures in the textile and clothing sector, up to sustainable packaging.

Guido Vettorel, from the Central Adriatic Ports Authority in Italy, explained the set-up of the ADRION Thematic Cluster on Multimodal, Sustainable Water and Land Transport, which oriented the discussion on the environmental and energetic sustainability of ports and the role of intramodality to reduce CO2 emissions in the Adriatic-Ionian region. According to Mr Vettorel, the Thematic Cluster, composed of 7 projects and 47 partners, was able to address a stakeholders’ debate through a policy paper focusing on ICT application for seamless logistics, as well as preparing investments to reduce emissions in ports and multimodal nodes.

Ivana Sacco, expert at the Italian Presidency of Ministers – Department for the Cohesion Policies, reinforced the message that Partner States involved in the governing body of each Programme are crucial in the strengthening of the cooperation, as they can bring Interreg experiences back to their national context, create links with national funding schemes and cross-border Programmes. The process was able to encourage an intergovernmental Mediterranean cooperation where main actors can support an informal network based on mutual aid and good relations.

The workshop showed that the three Programmes altogether have covered all EU Green Deal actions, funding 142 projects and producing green solutions on key areas for the growth of the Mediterranean region, such as agriculture, circular economy, transport, innovation, waste management and food labelling.

Watch again the event and download the presentations