European Commission logo
Energy, Climate change, Environment

EMFF 2017 Info Day - €14,5 million for a sustainable Blue Economy

News article |

Innovation, marine litter, cooperation in the Mediterranean, all target areas of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) call to foster a "Sustainable Blue Economy" across Europe, which will be launched at an Info Day on 9th November, 2017, in Brussels.

With a total budget of € 14,5 Million, the call will accelerate the implementation of the European maritime policy and the deployment of the Blue Economy across Europe and in the Mediterranean. It will be open to all sea basins surrounding the EU coasts and will target a wide range of stakeholders of the Blue Economy. 

The Info Day will be opened by Karmenu Vella, Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. The day will mark the launch of one of the Commitments of the European Union at the global conference Our Ocean 2017 in Malta and is a direct step to concrete action for a sustainable Blue Economy.

The Sustainable Blue Economy call comprises 4 strands to support innovation and bring research results closer to the market as well as increase capacity building and networking for a sustainable use of our sea basins. In this way, the call will support sustainable job creation, innovation and entrepreneurship in the blue economy.

Strand 1 - Demonstration projects for the blue economy has a budget of € 8.000.000. It will boost demonstration projects based on innovative technologies to test, deploy and scale up new industry and service applications and solutions for the blue economy. It will help improve the market-readiness of innovative technologies and/or maritime services.

Strand 2 - Efficient methodologies and technologies against marine litter has a budget of € 2.000.000. It will support concrete methodologies and technologies for reducing the volume and harmfulness of marine litter from sea-based sources, for monitoring and quantifying the contribution of sea-based sources of marine litter and for removing and recycling it, in an environmentally sound and resource-efficient way.

Strand 3 - Blue networks for the Mediterranean has a budget of € 3.000.000. It will promote networking to support job creation, innovation and entrepreneurship in the blue economy of the Mediterranean Sea, through cooperation between a wide variety of stakeholders such as education and training institutes, maritime clusters and fisheries local communities from the EU and its partner countries in the Mediterranean.

Strand 4 - Joint actions for a sustainable Blue economy in the Mediterranean has a budget of € 1.500.000. It will support the restoration of damaged or degraded coastal and marine ecosystems in zones of the Mediterranean with a high potential for a wide range of marine ecosystem services.

More information on: https://ec.europa.eu/easme/en/information-day-blue-growth-calls-under-emff

Link to the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund 2017 Work programme:https://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/sites/fisheries/files/c_2017_6382_en.pdf

Follow and interact #bluegrowth #EMFF2017