On 24th September 2026, SHARE4MED project organised a meeting in the framework of the 9th edition of the Forum Mondial de la Mer (World Sea Forum) in Bizerte, north of Tunisia.
The meeting was opened by Mr. Pascal Lamy, former European Commissioner for Trade and former Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) together with Ms. Rym Benzina, President of the association La Saison Bleue, local NGO and Tunisian partner of SHARE4MED. Ms. Joumana Sweiss, representative of Interreg NEXT MED Programme also took part in the opening.
Mr. Pascal Lamy highlighted the importance to link projects such as SHARE4MED with Mission Starfish 2030: Restore our Ocean and Waters.
Well beyond recognising that we have to work together to face the common challenge for a Plastic-Free Mediterranean, the focus was also on the crucial role played by local actors and municipalities and how relevant it is to work in coordination between the different levels of governance to reach effective actions.
A first step, in the context of SHARE4MED, was to adapt a digital dashboard used by the municipality of Geneo in Italy, called Controllo Dynamico (Dynamic Control), and expand it to municipalities from all over the Mediterranean.
Agreeing on common statistic is the very first challenge when we tackle all the Mediterranean.
It´s better to focus on a smaller number of indicators but that can be collected and monitored by all participating municipalities and that are meaningful to them so that they can act according to the evolution of these indicators related to coastal management.
A crucial session was the feedback of representatives from municipalities to better understand their daily challenges and how this dashboard can be best used to help them manage their coasts.
The meeting closed leaving the floor to the launching of Circe.med, the new Mediterranean network on circular economy.
Next Med
