Brussels, 25/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - The EU Council of Ministers adopted the regulation on Thursday 24 November establishing a programme to support the further development of an integrated maritime policy. The financial envelope for the implementation of the programme is €40,000,000 for the period from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2013, in line with the agreement between the Council and the European Parliament (see EUROPE 10497).
The general objectives of the programme are: - to foster the development and implementation of integrated governance of maritime and coastal affairs; - to contribute to the development of cross-sectoral instruments, namely Maritime Spatial Planning, the Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) and marine knowledge on the oceans, seas and coastal regions within and bordering the EU, in order to develop synergies and to support sea or coast-related policies, particularly in the fields of economic development, employment, environmental protection, research, maritime safety, energy and the development of green maritime technologies; - to promote the protection of the marine environment, in particular its biodiversity, and the sustainable use of marine and coastal resources and to further define the boundaries of the sustainability of human activities that have an impact on the marine environment, in particular in the framework of Directive 2008/56/EC (the Marine Strategy Framework Directive); - to support the development and implementation of sea-basin strategies; - to improve and enhance external cooperation and coordination in relation to the objectives of the IMP, on the basis of advancing debate within international forums; in this respect, third countries shall be urged to ratify and implement the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS); - to support sustainable economic growth, employment, innovation and new technologies in maritime sectors and in coastal, insular and outermost regions in the EU.
In terms of the budget, this envelope is to be composed of: - €23.14 million drawn from the 2011 budget without calling on the available margin of Heading 2 of the Multiannual Financial Framework, - a sum of €16.66 million, including an allocation for technical assistance, entered in the draft budget and accepted by Council during its reading of the 2012 budget; - a further amount of €200,000 for technical assistance to be entered in the 2013 budget. To this end, the 2011 budget will need to be amended to create the necessary nomenclature and enter the appropriations in the reserve. The adopted budgets for 2012 and 2013 will need to include the relevant amounts for those years. (LC/transl.rt)