On 27-28 June 2022, the BLUEfasma project celebrated its closure with the Conference “Shaping a Circular Blue Economy in the Mediterranean” in Cairo, Egypt and STRATAGEM was present. The event was co-organized by BLUEfasma partner Dynamic Vision and the Lead partner, University of Patras, supported by DCarbon Egypt and the Circle the MED platform.

During the first day, key actors related to the blue economy and the fishing/ aquaculture sectors from both shores of the Mediterranean gathered together to share their experiences, challenges and opportunities towards the Circular Economy transition.

The event was opened by Mr Kokosioulis, Dynamic Vision, BLUEfasma partner and Mr Shalaby, DCarbon Egypt. A keynote speech from Mr Prof. Tarek Othman, Head of Marine Environment Division, National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, (NIOF), Egypt, followed.

The first panel “Regional cooperation for a Circular Blue Economy in the Mediterranean”, moderated by Mr Kremlis, Principal Advisor to the Greek Prime Minister for energy, climate, environment and circular economy, Honorary Director, EC, Mandated by DG ENV for Circular Economy and Insularity, welcomed representatives of DG MARE, the UfM, MedWaves, EEAA Egypt and the BLUEMED initiative to discuss about current and future plans and initiatives shaping the Circular Economy transition in both shores of the Mediterranean.

The next panel “Boosting public-private partnerships for a Circular Blue Economy”, moderated by Dimitrios Kokosioulis, examined challenges and potentialities of public-private partnerships, insights and experiences to identify barriers and opportunities related to circular blue economy entrepreneurship and public investments.

Next, the session “Challenges and opportunities of the Fisheries sector in Egypt” moderated by Khaled Shaker, Researcher in oceanography and fisheries, DCarbon Egypt, followed.

The last session of the conference was titled as “How can circular practices benefit the economy?” and moderated by Mr Parisis, CEO Stratagem, BLUEfasma partner. During this session, it was explored transnational projects’ results, best practices and innovative tools enabling the circular transition and increased innovation performance in the Region. In this panel, the BLUEfasma overview, tools and policy outputs were presented followed by insights from the Green Growth Community on how we can go from “green” to “blue”, the good practices of the EEA Grants BLUE GREENWAY project related to the challenge of eutrophication, insights of the ENI CBC Plastic busters CAP project towards litter-free coastal areas and the role of civil society and the experiences of the Blue Growth Community project which presented the recently published report “A Circular Blue Economy for the Mediterranean: current practices and opportunities” jointly working together with the SwithMed Programme.

The first day was concluded with a speech by Mr Kremlis, emphasizing that the Mediterranean is threatened by the climate change crisis and we place great hopes on the upcoming COP 27 climate conference in Sharm El Sheikh, which Egypt will organize next November.

On the second day, participants had the chance to gain on-site “blue economy experience” on a field visit to the Hagag farms, Haram City. This 2000 square meters factory produces organic tilapia and vegetables. Since 11 years, this site has been testing innovative solutions and the most successful ones scaled up to the 92 000 square meters factory that Mister Hagag runs. This site saves up to 90% water volumes compared to a regular factory and produces in average 5 times more. Tilapia is the Egyptian favorite as it historically runs in Nile for a millennium.

The full Agenda is available here and the recorded video of the Conference will be available soon on the event’s website!