From Governance to Impact: AIR Centre represented the Atlantic & Arctic at the European Ocean Days 2026

The European Ocean Days 2026, held from 2 to 5 March in Brussels, brought together ocean science, policy, and innovation communities to take stock of progress and shape the future of Europe's ocean agenda. Among the key voices at the event was Valerie de Liedekerke, Head of Ocean Policy & Stakeholders' Engagement at the AIR Centre, coordinator of the BlueMissionAA project for the Atlantic-Arctic lighthouse, and team member of the BlueActionAA project, who participated in three sessions over the course of the event. On 4 March, representing BlueMissionAA, Valerie took part in a high-level panel bringing together the four Mission Lighthouse Coordination and Support Actions, alongside representatives from BlueMissionBANOS, EcoDalli, and BlueMissionMed. The session, titled Together for Change: A Coalition to Empower Communities for Mission Ocean and Waters, explored the current state of Mission communities, drawing on concrete examples from regions such as the Jiu Valley (Romania), Emilia-Romagna (Italy), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Spain), and the Akershus Region (Norway). Also representing BlueMissionAA, she contributed to a governance-focused panel at the 4th Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters Forum 2026, discussing how coordination across national and local hubs and sea-basin initiatives can accelerate the implementation of Mission objectives. In the session Governance: From National and Local Hubs to Sea-Basin Coordination, panelists explored ways to better align policies, funding instruments, and institutional efforts, and how Mission Lighthouses can support the replication and scaling of solutions across regions. Representatives from BlueMissionMED, BlueMissionBANOS, EcoDalli, the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space, and the Spanish National Hub for the WestMED Initiative also took part in this session. Finally, in the workshop From Actions to Impact: Tracking the Mission's Progress, held on 6 March, dedicated to monitoring and impact assessment, she presented on behalf of the BlueActionAA project on the monitoring actions undertaken under the community-led actions, coordinating with sister projects BlueActionBANOS, SoS2LearnDBS, and TASC-RestoreMed. The workshop brought together coordinators of ongoing Mission Ocean Horizon Europe projects, the European Commission's Mission Secretariat, the European Environment Agency (EEA), ICES, and CINEA, with the aim of co-designing a cross-basin monitoring framework and shaping the path forward for the Mission's deployment phase through to 2030. Across all three sessions, the AIR Centre's active participation underscored its central role in driving Atlantic-Arctic cooperation, advancing Mission Ocean governance, and ensuring that community-led actions are robustly tracked and built upon as the Mission moves into its next phase. [PC, 9 March 2026]