ICBSS – BSEC – DG MARE Online Workshop on Black Sea projects for Blue Economy (2-10-2020)

The International Centre for Black Sea Studies (ICBSS), the Organization for the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) and the EU Commission's Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE), jointly organized the online workshop on “Black Sea projects on coastal and maritime tourism, maritime transports, fishery and aquaculture, digitalization. Gaps and opportunities” on Friday 2 October 2020.

Under the moderation of Mr. Thanos SMANIS, Black Sea blue economy expert, BSEC PERMIS consultant for the Black Sea Virtual Knowledge Centre, a panel of projects’ representatives exchanged views on gaps and opportunities emerging from the results, best practices and lessons learned of projects with a regional dimension developed in the Black Sea focusing on four crucial sectors: coastal and maritime tourism, maritime transport, fishery and aquaculture, and digitalization.

The workshop’s objective was to identify useful elements for future discussions on potential flagship projects that take in due consideration the existing and build on that, as well as the new scenarios and challenges imposed by the pandemic.

Opening remarks were delivered by Ms. Isabelle VIALLON, Deputy Head of Unit Sea-basin Strategies, Maritime Regional Cooperation and Maritime Security, DG MARE, Ms. Florentina CARAMITRU, Constanta County Council Romania, regarding the strategic role of the Common Maritime Agenda in supporting the identification of flagship projects at regional level.

During the Session 1 on “Coastal and maritime tourism”, Ms. Florentina CARAMITRU, Constanta County Council Romania, Ms. Petya ATANASOVA, Sozopol Municipality, and Mr. Roberto MONTANARI, Emila-Romagna Region, Italy, talked about the Project TREASURE -Joint Cultural Heritage- Source for Development of Entrepreneurship in the Black Sea Basin, the Project CULTOUR-BSB -Development of Sustainable Cultural Tourism in the Black Sea Basin and the Project CO-EVOLVE Coastal and Maritime Tourism in the Mediterranean (from the Mediterranean), accordingly.

Mr. Giuseppe RUSSO, Senior Project Officer EMSA, Capacity Building Sustainability and Technical Assistance and Mr. Matteo BOCCI, Assistance Mechanism WestMED initiative, panellists of the Session 2 on “Maritime transport”, presented the EMSA Project Black and Caspian Sea Project (BCSEA) and the WestMED Technical Group on Green Shipping and Green Ports.

At Session 3 on “Fishery and aquaculture”, Ms. Nazli Demirel, BlackSea4Fish project coordinator, Mr. Konstantin PETROV, GFCM Subregional Coordinator for the Black Sea, and Mr. Marian TUDOR, Danube Delta National Institute for Research and Development, talked about the Project BlackSea4Fish, the Small-Scale Fisheries University and the Project DACIAT - Improving the existing competences and developing new ones in the aquaculture and fish products trade sector.

From their perspective, Mr. Mamuka BERDZENISHVILI, Tourism Institute Georgia and Mr. Rahid ANNANE, Researcher in Aquaculture and Fisheries public policies, Aquaculture Development Director at Algerian Fisheries Ministry, presented the Project Tourism 4.0 for the Black Sea and the Project NewTechAqua-New technologies Tools and Strategies for a Sustainable, Resilient and Innovative European Aquaculture (from the Mediterranean), at final Session 4 on “Digitalization”.

The highly attended webinar was organised in continuation of the first online workshop that opened the discussion about the first impacts of the covid-19 outbreak on key sectors of blue economy in the Black Sea region, held in June 2020.

During Q&A, participants highlighted important issues for future discussions and further deliberations. In total, more than 100 participants from the wider region joined the webinar.

This was the fourth of a series of webinars planned by the ICBSS to launch a new era of online meetings on key issues targeting the wider Black Sea region.

You may visit the ICBSS channel on YouTube to watch the full Webinar here.