The 4th Steering Committee & Project Management Board Meeting of RE.CO.RD project tοοκ place on 10th and 11th December 2019, in Arta, Greece. This meeting was of outmost importance as all partners attended the activities planned and the fruitful discussions including elaborative roadmap for future steps. Moreover, officials from Interreg Programme joined the consortium to increase the project level of commitment and activities organization; as well as to support the project partners in effectively achivieving the project implementation. In particular, JS project Officer Mr. Gargano, attended the meeting via Skype and provided valuable guidance on management issues, while Mrs Nikoy JS Greek Info Point representative, physically joint the consortium and assisted the Greek partners on financial issues.

Capacity building and waste management network, one of the major objectives of the project, was at the top of the agenda in this meeting. Special training sessions are designed aiming to increase the awareness of the importance of plastic recycling, as well as recycling of other waste materials (glass, paper, etc.), in order to emphasize the alarming problem of marine litter.

Indeed, the organization of an international training session in Greece will take place in late February 2020 in Arta, Greece. The training topics are related to sustainable waste management issues, environmental certification, coastal monitoring, prevention of environmental risks. The duration of the training session will be 5 days and the official language used will be English. A call will be released in January 2020 addressing professionals, technicians, academics, young professionals and recent graduates, post graduate and/or undergraduate students of physical sciences, engineering sciences & technology, life sciences, mathematics & information sciences, social sciences, environment & energy, or relative studies from, public authorities, NGOs and/or other relative organizations. Some of the candidate selection criteria are a motivation letter and professional competencies.

Another capacity building activity discussed within the consortium was the organization of two training courses in Greece and Italy that will be organized by the Municipality of Santa Cesarea Terme and the Municipality of Lefkada. These training courses address beaches operators and organizations for accommodation facilities in order to be trained on EMAS environmental certification procedures and on technical guidelines for the sustainable management of the bathing sites. The lessons will take place in native language (Greek and Italian) in order for both Greek and Italian trainees to be able to attend the courses.

The next meeting is expected to take place in Otranto Italy in February 2020.