The governance projects within the Interreg Euro-MED Innovative Sustainable Economy mission enhance the legacy of the Interreg MED 2014-2020 Programme, building on the work done by the previous Thematic Communities on Green Growth, Blue Growth, and Cultural and Social & Creative areas. The current mission has a broader scope embracing innovation capacities – technological, social, institutional – and practices conducive to more sustainable production and consumption in the region, in line with European Cohesion Policy priorities and specific objectives.

The world is confronted with a more and more urgent need to accelerate the transition from a social and economic development model relying on excessive exploitation of natural resources to a more sustainable one, compatible with the planetary boundaries. Global change is happening, and it is happening fast, pushed by human pressure. The consequences of these changes – climate change and biodiversity loss above all – are increasingly visible and affecting our daily life. The Mediterranean region is a densely populated sea basin and a climate change hotspot.

The United Nations 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals offered an integrated framework to guide collective efforts. In the European Union, the European Green Deal traces the way for a new growth strategy that aims to transform the EU into a fair and prosperous society, with a modern, resource-efficient, and competitive economy, conserving and enhancing the EU’s natural capital, and protecting the health and well-being of citizens from environment-related risks and impacts. Overall, this transition will lead to a European Union where there are no net emissions of greenhouse gases in 2050 and where economic growth is decoupled from resource use.

At the Mediterranean level, following the approval of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Ministerial Declaration on Environment and Climate Action in October 2021, the 2030 GreenerMed Agenda provides a regional structured framework that creates political and operational convergence to accelerate the transition of the Mediterranean region towards a green, blue, circular and inclusive economy.

There is growing consensus on the role of transformative place-based innovation to reach these ambitious targets. Innovation investment can be oriented to meet the most pressing challenges of sustainable development, beyond short-term economic growth

In this context, the Interreg Euro-MED Programme mission is implemented through governance projects and different types of thematic projects (such as strategic territorial, study, test, and transfer). To amplify individual thematic projects’ results and raise the overall mission impact, the mission relies on the know-how and field implementation knowledge of the Thematic Community Project along with the policy and advocacy knowledge of the Institutional Dialogue Project.

Jointly the two governance projects contribute to:

• Facilitating the exploitation and REUSE of knowledge, experiences, and project results towards other stakeholders.
• Facilitating the TRANSFER of results to other stakeholders, Programmes and territories and their mainstreaming into local, regional, national, and European policies.
• Increasing COORDINATION between stakeholders covering the Mediterranean based on shared knowledge, experiences, and results.