The Ministerial Meeting took place in Porto back-to-back with the Atlantic Stakeholders Platform Conference and the first Atlantic Ministerial Declaration was approved!
During the Ministerial Meeting France, Ireland, Portugal and Spain, supported by the European Commission, committed to further build on Atlantic's success by cooperating on a wide variety of Sustainable Blue Economy topics.
During the past months the four Atlantic countries, supported by the Atlantic Assistance Mechanism and the European Commission, have elaborated a Ministerial Declaration. This was the result of an intense and rewarding teamwork, which resulted in an ambitious text that was in line with and even went beyond the common goals for a sustainable Atlantic area - the maintenance and restoration of the Atlantic ecosystems whilst developing all blue economy related activities.
The Ministerial Declaration adopted on 18 October, 2023 focusses on reaffirming and further strengthening cooperation in the following thematic areas:
- The contributions of the Committee and national representatives to the Action Plan's objectives, underscoring the regional importance of the Atlantic Maritime Strategy by addressing geopolitical instability, post-COVID recovery and energy crisis mitigation;
- The promotion of specific sectors like offshore renewable energy and blue biotechnologies, reaffirming their commitment to work together on the deployment of offshore renewable energy potential and to work towards decarbonization, where ports have a major role in the sustainable development of sectors like coastal tourism, aquaculture and shipbuilding;
- The value of attracting new talents for the Blue Economy, by upskilling and reskilling workers and ensuring their interoperability in the Atlantic region in order to engage citizens and raise social awareness about the impacts of climate change in coastlines and risk mitigation and adaptation, namely through Citizen Science;
- The role of national maritime spatial plans and EU-funded cross-border projects in mitigating conflicts and promoting stakeholder participation and the continued commitment to cooperative efforts for the prosperity of coastal areas and Action Plan's relevance;
- The cooperation and knowledge exchange with other Sea Basin Strategies to address common challenges and priorities through cross-sea basin policy dialogue.
The Atlantic Community welcomes you to read the full version of the Ministerial Declaration
