GRAAL at the Atlantic-WestMED Stakeholder Conference 2026

On 15-16 September 2026, the GRAAL project — Governance and Regional Atlantic Area Lighthouse, a strategic project of the Interreg Atlantic Area Programme, took part in the very first Atlantic-WestMED Stakeholder Conference, held at the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and organised by the WestMED Initiative (DG MARE / CINEA) in connection with the Interreg Atlantic Area Programme. Two days that brought together perspectives from the Atlantic and the Western Mediterranean on shared priorities: multilevel governance, territorial approach and regional cooperation in support of the environmental and maritime priorities of both sea basins.

Ahead of the plenary conference, the Building Synergies Amongst Interreg Programs event brought together the Managing Authorities of Interreg Atlantic, MAC, Euro-MED and NEXT-MED. This gathering made it possible to compare territorial cooperation programmes designed at different geographical scales, yet facing priorities that often converge on environmental and maritime matters. This kind of inter-programme dialogue speaks directly to one of GRAAL's core aims: strengthening coherence between European initiatives operating at different scales — an issue the project considers central to its ongoing work.

In the afternoon, the Blue Synergies: Youth Shaping the Future of Atlantic Cooperation event carried forward the reflection on involving younger generations in Atlantic cooperation, in continuity with the Young Voices for the Atlantic consultation, to which GRAAL's Open Policy Lab, held in Brest in May 2026, had contributed.

The plenary day on 16 September, for its part, provided a valuable setting for exchanges on the implementation of the Atlantic Maritime Strategy and its Action Plan, held in dialogue with counterparts across both basins. Through the diversity of institutional and territorial perspectives it brought together, this discussion represented a particularly important moment for GRAAL, whose work aims precisely to support, in a spirit of multilevel governance, a stronger articulation between initiatives carried out under this strategy and the regional cooperation dynamics driven by the territories themselves.

Beyond the sessions, these two days were, above all, a time of meetings and networking for the GRAAL team with other European projects and programmes engaged on neighbouring priorities. These exchanges feed directly into the community of practice formed by the Atlantic Policy Lab, led by GRAAL to bring together public authorities, experts and stakeholders around the valorisation of European project results. Every new encounter is an opportunity to broaden this network and, over time, to strengthen the collective impact of the work carried out across the Atlantic Area.

GRAAL would like to thank the organisers — the WestMED Initiative and the Interreg Atlantic Area Programme — for two very rich days of exchange.