Looking back at the European Maritime Day 2024

The European Maritime Day 2024

The Danish port of Svendborg has a rich maritime heritage spanning centuries, with its history in fishery, trading, and shipping, making it one of the most important trade centres in Scandinavia. It’s connection with maritime made it the ideal location to host the European Maritime Day 2024 (EMD2024).

Organised by the European Commission, the Municipality of Svendborg, and the Danish Maritime Authority, the event gathered a variety of stakeholders from the EU maritime community with 1,114 attendees gathering at the Svendborg International Maritime Academy (SIMAC) from 30-31 May 2024. Moreover, the virtual component attracted a substantial audience, with 410 participants joining online on the first day and 306 on the second day.

The European Maritime Day is a two-day annual event where the stakeholders of Europe’s maritime ecosystem gather to discuss, network, and plan joint action on maritime affairs. This year’s event focused on the promotion of a sustainable blue economy and invited virtual participation alongside the in-person attendees.

Discussions and activities highlighted innovative approaches and solutions aimed at fostering sustainable practices within the maritime sector. The event provided a platform for policymakers, industry leaders, researchers, and environmental advocates to exchange ideas, share knowledge, and collaborate on strategies to balance economic growth with environmental stewardship.

The Coastal Hub booth

EMD 2024 was a huge success and provided an opportunity to introduce the wider EU maritime community to the Copernicus Coastal Hub, a single-entry point for Copernicus marine, land, atmosphere, climate, and emergency Earth observation data on coastal areas. The Coastal Hub offers policymakers, scientists, and businesses simplified access to Copernicus data, actively contributing to the EU Green Deal.

A sustainable blue economy is a central element of these objectives, with the Coastal Hub providing several examples of use cases supporting the blue economy, including aquaculture farming, Marine Protected Areas, flood risk and hydropower energy assessment, and a wide array of mapping products.

The Copernicus Coastal Hub was represented at the European Maritime Day 2024!

As part of the EMD 2024, the Copernicus Coastal Hub was showcased in a dedicated booth where attendees were introduced to the Coastal Hub Viewer, a digital platform that allows Copernicus users to navigate, visualise, and download data available from 5 Copernicus services (Climate, Atmosphere, Emergency, Land and Marine). Muriel Lux, Key Account Manager at Mercator Ocean International, demonstrated ways to get the most out of the viewer and also informed attendees on the various cases studies and available products.

The Coastal Hub viewer in action at our booth

Looking ahead, the next European Maritime Day 2025 will be hosted in Cork, Dublin and promises to be another vibrant gathering of the maritime community to further the cause of sustainable maritime development.