EU on a mission to restore waters

Under the EU Mission ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters’, 26 projects will be given funding worth €126.9 million.

The projects involve 26 EU member states and 9 associated countries, from the Baltic and North Sea, through the Danube River and Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and across to the Atlantic.

With a wide range of expected benefits to both the marine environment and local communities, the projects cover topics such as:

• Sustainable management of sediments in the Danube river
• Protection and restoration of biodiversity in the Atlantic and the Arctic sea basins
• Combating water and soil pollution in and around the Mediterranean sea basin
• Protection and restoration of European natural lake ecosystems
• Increasing landscape water retention capacity at the regional scale
• Protection, restoration and co-management of marine protected areas and improved connectivity of blue corridors
• Improvement of energy efficiency of small-scale fishing fleets, reducing fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions
• Reconciling offshore renewable energy production with the protection of biodiversity
• Integration of socio-ecological models in the Digital Twin Ocean (replica of the ocean to test the possible impact of decisions) to make the data more complete
• Integration of inland waters data into the Digital Twin Ocean
• Development of communication campaigns and applications to promote the sustainable consumption of seafood in the EU
• Actions to engage citizens with the ocean, through art and creative performance

EU Missions has been established under the Horizon Europe programme, which aims to bring solutions to current societal challenges by 2030.