The WestMED Initiative has been created to help public institutions, academia, local communities, small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs from both sides of the Western Mediterranean develop local and regional maritime projects together. WestMED Ministerial Declaration and Roadmap -full text Development of coastal communities and sustainable fisheries and aquaculture.Biodiversity and marine habitat conservation and restoration.Maritime safety and the fight against marine pollution.In this roadmap, 6 priorities were agreed upon: The signatories agreed on a common roadmap for the development of a sustainable blue economy in the sub-basin to generate growth, create jobs and provide a better living environment for Mediterranean populations, while preserving the services performed by the Mediterranean ecosystem. On December 4 2018, in Algiers, the 10 Ministers of the Western Mediterranean countries, together with the European Commission and the Union for the Mediterranean, adopted a declaration to strengthen regional cooperation on the WestMED initiative. In its Conclusions on Blue Growth, the Council of the EU has also invited the participating countries, the European Commission and the Union for Mediterranean (UfM) Secretariat to take forward its implementation in coherence with all the other initiatives, which are taking place in the region. The Initiative for the sustainable development of the blue economy in the western Mediterranean region was adopted by the European Commission on 19 April 2017 and endorsed by the Council of the EU on 26 June 2017. It also builds on other EU policies linked to the region, such as the European Neighbourhood Policy Review priorities and the recent Communication on International Negotiations in the western Mediterranean. The Initiative is based on the European Commission’s long-standing experience with sea basin and macro-regional strategies (such as the Atlantic Strategy, the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and the EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region). In October 2016, Foreign Affairs Ministers from Algeria, France, Italy, Libya, Malta, Mauritania, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Tunisia encouraged further work on an initiative for the sustainable development of the blue economy, alongside the Union for the Mediterranean Secretariat. The Initiative follows up on the Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Declaration on the Blue Economy endorsed by the Union for Mediterranean (UfM) which took place on the 17 November 2015, inviting the participating countries to explore the added value and feasibility of appropriate maritime strategies at sub-regional level, and build on the experience of the 5+5 Dialogue. These countries are ready and willing to work together on their shared interests for the region: to increase maritime safety and security, promote sustainable blue growth and jobs, and preserve ecosystems and biodiversity. The WestMED initiative is the result of years of dialogue between ten countries in the western Mediterranean region involved in the ‘5+5 Dialogue’: five EU Member States (France, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Malta), and five Southern partner countries (Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia).
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