The Open Monitoring System maps the sectors, projects and networks active in the Mediterranean on the themes of the Innovative Sustainable Economy Mission. It draws on open data from Interreg and other European funding programmes, so that cooperation can be read beyond the boundaries of a single programme, Interreg Euro-MED included. 

Its first component is MedCoopNet, a database of the cooperation projects funded by the European Union across the Mediterranean since 2014, with an interactive dashboard and a final report. 

MedCoopNet: mapping EU-funded cooperation in the Mediterranean 

Information on cooperation projects exists, but it is spread across the databases of individual programmes, and no common picture of cooperation in the wider Mediterranean was available. MedCoopNet (Mapping Mediterranean Cooperation Networks and Governance) brings this information together to answer four questions: how much cooperation takes place, who cooperates, on which themes, and what patterns cooperation follows. 

The database contains 44,685 projects funded between 2014 and mid-2025 by six programmes – Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe, Interreg, Erasmus+, LIFE, Creative Europe and the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund – for almost €30 billion of EU funding and 50,152 organisations. It covers the EU Mediterranean regions and the neighbouring countries, from Mauritania to Moldova. Projects are located down to NUTS-3 level, classified by theme and analysed as networks of organisations and regions. The 2021–2027 period is covered in part, with the projects available in spring 2025, and only programmes with open project data are included. 

MedCoopNet is an ESPON targeted analysis, funded by the ESPON 2030 Cooperation Programme and carried out by SIRIS Academic between January 2025 and June 2026. The study was proposed by nine stakeholders: the Emilia-Romagna Region (lead), the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region, the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds of Croatia, the Government of Catalonia, the Metropolis of Nice Côte d’Azur, the Region of Crete, the CPMR Intermediterranean Commission and the UNEP/MAP Secretariat. Interact, the Union for the Mediterranean, the PRIMA Foundation and the Regional Cooperation Council were also involved, and the study has received the label of the Union for the Mediterranean. 

MedCoopNet proposal was born within the Interreg Euro-MED Innovative Sustainable Economy Governance Projects which are also further promoting the analysis and the use of the new available evidence and will ensure the update of data in the coming years. 

Discover the latests news: 

• MedCoopNet presented at the MedLab annual meeting