On May 10 2023, under the coordination of Romania, implementers of the Common Maritime Agenda for the Black Sea held a regional workshop, Building Black Sea Blue Economy: Partnership and Funding Opportunities. The workshop was designed to map funding opportunities and support stakeholder engagement to generate project ideas in line with Common Maritime Agenda, raise awareness on EU funding available for Black Sea stakeholders, and promote successful partnerships in accessing funds at regional level.

Representatives of the Black Sea Assistance Mechanism and National Hubs of the Common Maritime Agenda for the Black Sea attended the official Launch of the “Black Sea SRIA Implementation Plan: What is next for the Black Sea research and innovation cooperation?” on 4 May 2023, at the European Parliament in Brussels.

The workshop ‘Paths to decarbonisation: cross-sea basin synergies’ organised within the EMD 2023 in Brest, France, embedded a rich discussion amongst a panel of policy representatives from the Presidencies/Representatives of the three Sea Basin Strategies and the EU Commission, followed by a moderated Q&A session between panellists and the audience.

Alexandra Bogdan, Director in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania, representing the 2023 Coordination of the CMA for the Black Sea, participated in the launch of the Danube and Black Sea Lighthouse, held in the Palace of the Parliament of Romania on 3 April. The purpose of the event was to officially kick off work under the Danube and Black Sea Lighthouse, a key activity of the EU Mission ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030’.

Ukrainian National Hub of the Black Sea Assistance Mechanism, together with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, hosted a national event: “Assessment of Damage Caused by the Russian Aggression to the Research and Educational Institutions of Black Sea Studies and Possible Project Solutions,” in Odesa, on the 27th of April 2023.

European Commission has launched the third call for small-scale projects under the Innovation Fund with total budget of EUR 100 million. Deadline for proposal submissions: 19 September 2023, 17:00 (CEST) Areas of activity include: renewable energy, decarbonisation of energy-intensive industries, energy storage, and carbon capture, use and storage.

The (Interreg VI-B) NEXT Black Sea Basin Programme launched a call for proposals for small-scale and regular projects. Deadline: 4 of July, 2023 (16:00 hrs, Romania time)

MedBan, has deployed two simultaneous but separate open calls for EU Blue Economy SMEs for Innovation, training and twin transformation of businesses and Internationalisation actions. Deadline: 31 May 2023

Blue economy stakeholders can now form a Smart Specialisation (S3) interregional partnership by submitting their interest to the European Commission under the call for expression of interest for new S3 partnerships, under the Smart Specialisation Community of Practice (S3 CoP).

Bulgaria hosts its first national event, “Challenges and resilience capacity of the Bulgarian ports in a changing Black Sea region” on 8 June in Varna, Bulgaria. The event intends to initiate a discussion on the challenges faced by Bulgarian ports and the opportunities for their development. The discussion will focus on perspectives for environmental and energy resilience, good practices from other sea basins and the generation of new project ideas.

WestMED Stakeholder Conference will be held on Thursday, 22 June 2023 in Malta. The event is open to all stakeholders that are contributing to improve the sustainable blue economy in the region. This year’s focus is on sustainable aquaculture, green shipping and ports, maritime clusters and marine spatial planning.

The high-level conference, 'Joining Forces for the Energy Transition in EU Fisheries and Aquaculture', will launch the process of establishing the new Energy Transition Partnership in the sector. It will be a day marked by panel discussions, pitches and networking. Registration open until 2 June

Burgas Blue Summit is organised to accelerate research, innovation and entrepreneurship in the Black Sea region to jointly develop pathways for smart specialisation, blue innovation and growth acceleration for sustainable blue economy in the Black Sea basin.

This event will be held in Constanta, on the 21st of June 2023, organised by the Romanian National Hub for the Common Maritime Agenda for the Black Sea. During this event, the concept of blue skills will be presented. Different panel discussions will take place, about blue tourism, innovation and research, blue skills in higher education and fishing. Stay tuned as more information will soon follow!

A survey with 2145 consumers was conducted in five European countries to inquire into consumers’ views about the main pillars of the sustainability (environmental, social, and economic) when farmed and wild fish are compared, as well as to identify segments of consumers with similar views about fish sustainability.

Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission have recently published European Blue Economy report for 2023. The report highlights the evolution of the blue economy sectors since 2010, showing that most of the analysed sectors increased their economic performances.