NEW EPOCs goal is to provide port cities with a set of tools developed from effective policies and strategies, good practice and comparative analyses. These tools will help in the development of new ideas and methods for successfully managing the process of economic diversification and consolidation in maritime cities taking full account of social and ecological considerations. Achievements: Achievements so far NEW EPOC has achieved its objectives of identifying & understanding the impact of global trends on port-cities. It provides decision-makers in port-cities with information, expertise & guidelines to help develop policies for managing economic change & securing long-term economic prosperity. Results achieved through meetings, surveys, exchange of experts, specialist workshops & fact-finding visits to all partner ports, as well as other ports identified for their good practice. Range of pilot actions undertaken to broaden knowledge & develop expertise. Specific innovative approaches to shared problems identified & good practice guide to social inclusion published to highlight these. Benchmarks produced in report which also contains profile & indepth analysis of each partners capacity to deal with global challenges faced & matrix of individual problems, weaknesses & strengths. Findings incorporated in toolset/checklist designed to allow port cities to measure performance against range of economic, environmental, social & cultural criteria. Success factors identified are partnership involving city-port community, shared strategic vision & joint commitment to delivery, labour market diversification, innovation, internationalisation, improving access to international markets, social inclusiveness & use of maritime cultural heritage to release new economic opportunities. On-line exhibition showing process of growth, decline & regeneration in the partner ports prepared & training programme in oral history techniques completed. Exhibitions have been exchanged (Basque whaling boats & local shipyard community experiences). The project has 5 components: Project Management; Urban Challenges-Economic& Environmental; Cultural Heritage; Social Inclusion; Preparation of Management Toolset & Dissemination. A Steering Group of representatives from all 16 partner organisations has met 6-monthly. Component meetings, study-visits, workshops & round tables involving experts have been held between Steering Group meetings. Minutes are taken + distributed to partners with action notes. Attendance at meetings has averaged 85%. The project website has been receiving over 500 visitors monthly. 20 press releases highlighting main meetings/events have been issued. Links have been made with other Interreg projects + with MEPs and the Commission. A response to the EU Green Paper on Maritime Policy based on NEW EPOC findings was well-received. It is understood that the NE recommendations will be adopted. The EU Maritime Commissioner opened the project's Final Conference. In 2006 a 1-year extension was granted to allow training workshops to be held to pilot the project findings in 2 new Member States: Tallinn-Estonia and Valetta-Malta. Both were well-received locally. Final Report disseminated. Brief extension of contract date applied for and granted to enable conclusion of project administrative actions.