The five European maritime regions—the Mediterranean, Black Sea, North Sea, Baltic, and Atlantic Ocean—each have distinct challenges and opportunities in the transition towards a sustainable blue economy. The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership's regional nodes serve as key connectors, ensuring that the Partnership’s strategy remains grounded in local realities while facilitating knowledge sharing and policy alignment. By acting as liaisons with local actors, the nodes help integrate fragmented regional knowledge into a coherent, pan-European approach.

Engagement and next steps

A major focus of the Brussels meeting was the ongoing cycle of thematic regional workshops. The nodes reviewed the outcomes of previous workshops; with three of them already held and two more to come, these provide a platform for local stakeholders to engage, share insights, and explore opportunities for collaboration.

Another point of discussion was the role of the nodes in the next phase of Partnership activities. Moving forward, the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership will focus on building regional and thematic project portfolios, an effort led by the French National Research Agency, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, under Work Package 4. This work will be carried out in close collaboration with the European Commission's DG RTD and DG MARE to help define a more cohesive and synergistic European blue economy policy.

Lastly, a key topic of discussion was precisely how to promote alignment between projects funded by the Partnership and those funded by other EU initiatives, such as the Mission “Restore Our Ocean and Waters. The continued commitment of all parties will be essential to build an integrated European approach to the challenges of the blue economy, particularly in areas such as food security, energy resilience and climate adaptation.

The Partnership extends its thanks to everyone for joining, including participants from the European Commission, BlueMissionMed, and Blue Mission BANOS, for their valuable contributions. Special appreciation goes to Fedra Francocci and Careen Kruegel for sharing insights from the Mission Lighthouses.