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Co-Evolved4BG attended the Steering Committee meeting of the COMMON that took place in Sousse, Tunisia on February 18, with the aim of developing better synergyies between both projects. 

The COMMON  project, financed by the EU in the framework of the ENI CBC Med Programme, aims at applying the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) principles to the marine litter management in 5 pilot coastal areas through a local coordination together with a Mediterranean networking among different stakeholders.

During the meeting, Co-Evolve4BG was highly involved with a presentation titled "Co-Evolve4BG and synergies with COMMON project". The discussions identified different problems with marine litter management and disposal at coastal level that could be transferred to the whole Mediterranean area interfering in the sustainable tourism. 

Several topics were discussed during the meeting with the contribution of Co-Evolve4BG:

• Relevant threats and enabling factors (T&EF) impinging on coastal ecosystems 
• Relation between COMMON pilot areas and complementary project actions in the MED region.
• Ecosystem threats and common interrelating objectives in marine water quality assessment, marine litter management and preserving marine environment in Mediterranean basin. 
• Marine coastal tourism typologies and the other human activities with the benefits supported by coastal ecosystems.

After the discussion some complementary actions were identified between the expected results of both projects:

• Address priorities (threats and enabling factors) for sustainable development of coastal and maritime tourism at Med scale.
• Support the implementation of sustainable development in pilot areas based on touristic driven knowledge and ecosystem planning effort (ICZM/MSP principles).
• Provide local authorities/stakeholders with long term management tools enabling an integrated approach of the coastal zone management.
• Create opportunities for jobs in coastal and maritime tourism sector.

In addition, the different objectives and expected results of the Co-Evolve4BG project were discussed with the participants. 

This participation opportunity allows to extending the collaboration with the Mediterranean institutions to formulate common projects in the framework of the ENI CBC Med Programme.