From 10 to 14 June 2024, 15 officials from public administrations of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro joined the training of trainers organised in the framework of the project TRUE BLUE - CEI support to Training and Research to Unlock and Enhance the potential of sustainable BLUE Economy for regional cooperation and EU integration. Co-financed by Italy through the CEI Know-how Exchange Programme, the project is led by the Italian National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics – OGS in cooperation with the Euro-Mediterranean University - EMUNI (Slovenia) and the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries – IZOR (Croatia). The initiative aims to support progress towards EU integration and promote regional cooperation of the three beneficiary countries through capacity-building activities. The actions will meet their common and specific needs in terms of know-how transfer on sustainable blue economy, a field in which Italy, Slovenia and Croatia have strong-rooted experience.
Participants engaged in an intensive week of courses in Trieste (Italy) and in Piran (Slovenia) focusing on topics of the sustainable blue economy. , covering various sectors, including marine spatial planning, fishing and aquaculture, sustainable blue tourism, and shipping and ports. The courses also provided interactive sessions, practical examples, case studies, best practice sharing, and methodologies for transferring this knowledge to public administrations, science diplomacy, soft skills and innovative teaching methods.
Field trips were also part of the programme: participants visited the Fonda fish farm, in Portoroz (Slovenia), which is an example of sustainable tourism linked to fisheries and aquaculture as well as the Port of Trieste where they had the opportunity to participate in the GeoAdriatico an international symposium that included a panel on Blue economy, Hydrogen, green shipping and European integration. An added value for the training was the synergy with other projects where OGS is involved and financed by EU resources. Furthermore, the training was also successful in creating a network of public administration officials from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Albania who will continue to work together to establish common actions for sustainable blue economy in their countries, based on the knowledge gained during this training.
For more info: dovier@cei.int
