The EU Commission's mission ”Restore our Ocean and Waters” aims to protect and restore the health of our seas and waters by 2030 through research and innovation, citizen engagement, and blue investments.
As part of this, the EU Commission has announced opportunities for, among others, islands and coastal communities to receive technical assistance to develop project ideas that can contribute to achieving this goal.
Leader Gute and Blue Center Gotland's project is one of 19 projects, the only one in Sweden, selected to receive technical assistance from top experts in their field. The project idea developed in dialogue with other islands and the coastal community in the Baltic Sea is called Baltic Islands and Coastal Communities Connect – Implementing the Circular Economy in Baltic Islands through Sustainable Tourism Practices and aims to explore the possibilities of regenerative blue mat tourism during the low season.
The EU Commission highlights the potential of the Gotland project.
The technical assistance will help scale up and further develop the project through tailored support from an expert team. The EU Commission expects the selected projects to play an important role in the implementation of the mission in the future.
The Commission has particularly highlighted the project idea's potential to serve as a pilot project by offering a practical model that can be replicated in other regions.
Award ceremony and strategic discussions.
As recipients of Technical Assistance, Leader Gute and Blue Center were specifically invited to participate in the third annual forum for the EU mission ”Restore our Ocean and Waters” on March 4, 2025, in Brussels to receive a ”Technical Assistance Award” and participate in the meeting's discussions and network with, among others, other islands and coastal communities in the EU.
The forum aims, among other things, to discuss the strategic focus of ”Restore our Ocean and Waters” in the coming years and its development together with various organizations and stakeholders from across the EU. A total of 1,500 people affected by the mission participated in the forum.
”A very cool experience!”
Ellen Lundkvist, operations manager from Leader Gute, traveled from Gotland to participate in the discussions and receive the ”Technical Assistance Award” in Brussels in a ceremonial manner.
– It was a very cool experience to be part of such a forum. The EU Commission invited to dialogue and I experienced a genuine commitment among officials and politicians to listen to and receive input from us various stakeholders who were there – such as researchers, regional representatives, small-scale fishermen, islanders. It was also a very good opportunity for us in Gotland to meet potential project partners from other islands and coastal communities. Already now we have several interesting project collaborations underway. We have, through the technical assistance, had support from an expert team during the autumn that has helped us in how we can develop our project idea, which has truly been valuable. Now we are moving forward and seeking international cooperation projects together with various islands and coastal communities in the Baltic Sea and keeping our fingers crossed that we can eventually receive support to realize our project idea.
– Blue Center Gotland thinks it is really fun that our work together with Leader Gute on projects to develop the blue industry in Gotland is recognized internationally, says Professor Gunilla Rosenqvist, Blue Center Gotland.