The Second Living Lab workshop for the Black Sea on Exploring scenarios for reducing persistent chemicals in the Black Sea basin, took place on 8–9 April 2025 in Varna, Bulgaria. The SOS-ZEROPOL2030 event brought together regional and national administrators, experts, researchers, businesses, and NGOs with the task to assess and prioritise policies in view of their potential to raise awareness and reduce PFAS in the basin’s environment. The insights coming out of the first Living Lab held in May 2024, which identified challenges and objectives for reducing PFAS in the Black Sea basin, were used to inform and develop the future scenarios on PFAS in the Black Sea. In this second edition the stakeholders determined the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for the identified exploratory scenarios, and the conditions that need to be met to leverage the opportunities and mitigate the identified threats.
On the first day of the event, following the introduction of Living Lab 2 from SOS-ZEROPOL 2030 Project and an overview of its main objective—to explore scenarios for reducing PFAS pollution in the Black Sea Basin by identifying preferred strategies, assessing their impacts, and considering potential trade-offs between different options—the first round of participatory discussions and decision-making began.
Participants were presented with four distinct scenarios for reducing PFAS pollution in the region:
- EU Compliance
- EU Collaboration
- Regional Autonomy
- Regional Leadership
The strengths and weaknesses of each scenario were analysed in dedicated focus groups. Each group later shared their insights and perspectives through presentations given by selected representatives. This was followed by an open session for questions and a lively discussion among all participants.
Participants analyzing pathways to achieving a pollution-free economy in the Black Sea region compared EU-led versus regionally-led approaches to environmental responsibility. They also examined reactive versus proactive pollution governance strategies as a key decision axis. The EU collaboration approach was identified as having numerous advantages and disadvantages, being recognized for its efficiency and stronger regulatory frameworks. In contrast, the regional autonomy approach was viewed as more responsive to local needs and regional specificities, though it suffered from weaker regulatory structures, insufficient capacity, and limited science-policy integration. Following an assessment of opportunities and threats across all scenarios, discussions shifted to comparing realistic versus ideal approaches for tackling PFAS pollution. The conclusions revealed varied perspectives on the matter, with a general consensus that realistic scenarios would likely involve either EU-directed or regionally-coordinated reactive responses. In contrast, the preferred scenarios uniformly emphasized either proactive EU partnership or assertive regional leadership initiatives.
The second day of the workshop began with a presentation by the Black Sea Commission, highlighting their role in addressing persistent chemical pollution in the Black Sea. This was followed by a session led by LOMARTOV, introducing the European Project SCENARIOS and its contributions to PFAS detection, monitoring, hazard and risk assessment, and remediation.
An overview of the SCENARIOS project was provided, including a detailed explanation of the innovative technologies proposed for detecting, separating, and eliminating PFAS:
- Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) for detection
- Surface Active Foam Fractionation (SAFF) for separation
- Cold Atmospheric Plasma (CAP) for elimination
In addition, LOMARTOV presented its role in evaluating the social acceptance, environmental feasibility, and large-scale applicability of the project. Recent advancements in these areas were also shared. The presentation concluded with a Q&A session, allowing workshop participants to engage in further discussion and seek more information about the SCENARIOS project.
The second round of discussions within Living Lab 2 concluded with focus groups continuing the dialogue initiated on Tuesday, April 8th. The discussions focussed around identifying the threats and opportunities associated with implementing each of the proposed scenarios for tackling PFAS contamination.
Each approach was presented along with a detailed analysis of its pros and cons, as well as the challenges and opportunities it could have. Among the four options, Regional Leadership and EU Collaboration emerged as the most favoured approaches, reflecting a shared willingness among participants for a more proactive and coordinated strategy.
The outcomes of the two Living Labs will be part of the advice provided to the European Commission on reducing pollution in European seas within the Source to Seas – Zero Pollution 2030 project. The workshop concluded on a positive note, marking a successful step forward in fostering collaboration and strategic thinking for PFAS pollution reduction in the Black Sea region.
