The 2026 edition of the Macro-Regional and Sea Basin Strategies Days brought together stakeholders from across Europe to exchange ideas, strengthen cooperation and explore opportunities for collaboration among the EU Macro-Regional and Sea Basin Strategies.
This year's event marked an important milestone for the EU Sea Basins Assistance Mechanism. For the first time, the four European Sea Basin initiatives – the Atlantic Maritime Strategy, the WestMED Initiative, the Common Maritime Agenda for the Black Sea, and the Greater North Sea Basin Initiative (GNSBI) – were showcased together through a dedicated stand in the Networking Village. This joint presence highlighted the growing cooperation among Europe's sea basins and provided a visible platform to engage with policymakers, projects, practitioners and stakeholders from across the blue economy community.
The stand, entitled “From Strategy to Action: the EU Sea Basin Strategies”, served as a hub for networking, information exchange and dissemination throughout the event. Visitors had the opportunity to learn more about the activities carried out across the four sea basins, explore examples of successful projects and discuss future opportunities for collaboration. The recently produced Sea Basins video, was also showcased as part of the stand activities, helping communicate how cooperation across sea basins is translated into tangible results on the ground.
From blue skills to cross-basin solutions for shared challenges
Cooperation on blue skills, talent retention, resilience and civil preparedness took centre stage during the first day of the event, through the interactive workshop “Social Sustainability for Green & Digital Transition” and the session “Sharing Experiences between the Baltic and Black Sea Regions on Resilience and Civil Preparedness.” The Sea Basins Assistance Mechanism (SBS AM) took an active stance in each of these workshops, through engaging participation of the national hubs and coordinators, as well as moderation of sessions and targeted interventions by the SBS AMs leaders and coordinators.
The discussions moved beyond idea-sharing and focused on practical, transferable solutions. Experts presented concrete tools, projects and governance approaches that can be adapted and scaled across sea basins, from maritime safety and security to environmental resilience. Whether addressing war-related pollution, strengthening preparedness, improving risk assessment, defragmentation or enhancing cross-border cooperation, the exchange highlighted that no region needs to reinvent the wheel.
These exchanges are instrumental for accelerating learning, building on proven practices and developing stronger regional responses to shared challenges.
Showcasing maritime cooperation
Alongside the Networking Village, participants were able to discover a selection of projects supported by the Sea Basin Strategies through a dedicated photographic exhibition. The display illustrated concrete initiatives, partnerships and achievements emerging from the Atlantic, WestMED, Black Sea and Greater North Sea Basin communities, providing a visual representation of the impact of maritime cooperation across Europe's regions.
Together with the stand and audiovisual materials, the exhibition contributed to increasing the visibility of the Sea Basin Strategies and helped demonstrate the diversity of activities being supported across multiple thematic sectors, from sustainable blue economy development and maritime innovation to environmental protection, blue skills and regional cooperation.
Exploring cooperation potential at thematic level
Furthermore, on 9 July, the EU Sea Basins Assistance Mechanism, together with representatives of the Macro Regional Strategies, organised the panel session “Further synergies among the Macro-Regional and Sea Basin Strategies: Cooperation potential at the thematic level”,
The session built on discussions held during previous editions of the Strategies Days and focused on identifying practical areas where cooperation between Macro-Regional and Sea Basin Strategies could be strengthened. Participants explored thematic areas where shared interests already exist, including green shipping and ports, sustainable tourism, maritime spatial planning, renewable energy, clusters, investments and SMEs.
The discussion featured contributions from Sea Basin experts and National Hubs representing different thematic communities across the Atlantic, WestMED and Black Sea regions, followed by reactions from thematic representatives of the EU Macro-Regional Strategies. Together, they examined common challenges, exchanged experiences and explored opportunities for future cooperation, capitalisation of project results and stakeholder engagement activities.
Building on the work initiated during the previous editions of the Strategies Days, the session reinforced the value of dialogue between Sea Basin and Macro-Regional stakeholders and highlighted the potential for greater collaboration at technical and thematic level in support of European policy objectives.
Strengthening the visibility of Europe's Sea Basins
The 2026 Macro-Regional and Sea Basin Strategies Days represented an important opportunity to showcase the progress achieved by the Sea Basins Assistance Mechanism and its partners in supporting maritime cooperation across Europe.
The joint presence of the four sea basins demonstrated how cooperation frameworks can complement one another, creating stronger connections between stakeholders, facilitating the exchange of knowledge and supporting the implementation of sustainable blue economy priorities.
As Europe continues to address shared maritime challenges and opportunities, initiatives such as the Macro-Regional and Sea Basin Strategies Days provide a valuable space to connect communities, promote synergies and translate strategic cooperation into concrete action.
The next milestones will provide further opportunities to strengthen these connections, including the Atlantic–WestMED Conference in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on 15–16 September 2026, and the Common Maritime Agenda (CMA) for the Black Sea Conference on 30 September 2026 in Burgas, Bulgaria. Both events will bring together stakeholders from their respective sea basins to address shared challenges, exchange knowledge and explore new opportunities for cooperation.