“We have to work together, northern and southern shore, to build the Mediterranean of tomorrow” affirmed Agnes Rampal, President of the Euro-Mediterranean Commission at the PACA region at the closing session of the “Made in MED: Crafting the future Mediterranean” two-day conference organised by the Interreg MED Programme, which took place in 18-19 April 2018 in Rome.
The event was meant to capitalise on the results of the 91 projects, co-funded by the ERDF – European Regional Development Fund, structured around eight thematic communities that started working in November 2016. UNIMED plays a strategic role in the communication of three out or eight thematic communities, most notably Sustainable Tourism, Sustainable Urban Transport and Biodiversity Protection. “Our participation in the Interreg MED-funded projects is linked to the possibility of transferring positive models of cooperation for sustainable development to our Southern shore partners for these priorities” affirmed Marcello Scalisi, Director of UNIMED.
The two-day conference was focused in particular on three transversal themes: climate change, blue economy and inclusive growth. Experts, both from the community of projects and external, as well as policy-makers, intervened on these topics discussing about the concerning status of the global challenges and the important impact of the territorial cooperation. This was followed by a focus on capitalisation, and the need to bring the results achieved by the community of projects on a policy level. This level of discussion involved the project PANORAMED, representing the governance strategic axis of cooperation of the Interreg MED Programme. The discussion was also open to other funding programmes focused on the Mediterranean, among them Interreg ADRION, Interreg Balkan-Mediterranean, Interreg SUDOE, Interreg Europe and ENI CBC MED focusing on the importance of the inter-programmes dialogue.
The Conference also let the projects showcase their work in an exhibition area “Tasting and Testing the Mediterranean”, where interactive experiences in line with the thematics and the results the projects are achieving, were planned.
The presentations and videos taken during the conference are available here.
*UNIMED is part of three Interreg MED communities of projects: Sustainable Tourism, Biodiversity Protection and Urban Transports and is mostly involved in the communication and capitalisation activities.
The Sustainable Tourism Community, currently made up of 17 projects, aims to study, test and capitalise new instruments and actions for increased tourism sustainability in the Mediterranean.
The Biodiversity Protection Community, currently made up of 11 projects, wants to streamline networking and management in Mediterranean Protected Areas to enhance nature conservation and protection. The Community is divided in three main topics: integrated ecosystem monitoring, sustainable use of natural resources and protected area management.
The Urban Transports Community, currently made up of 7 projects, seeks to improve sustainable urban mobility in the Mediterranean area and aims to solve the gap as a part of urban planning. The projects are designing and promoting tailor-made sustainable urban mobility solutions.
