Limassol, 08/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European ministers with responsibility for maritime policy presented their profession of faith for the continuation of the integrated maritime policy (IMP), to allow this to make an effective contribution to growth and employment. The “declaration of Limassol”, which was unveiled at an informal conference in Cyprus on Monday 8 October, one of the high points of the Cypriot Presidency, marks the way to breathe new life into the IMP. Although some people see it as a “EUROPE 2020 strategy” for the blue economy, others stress its shortcomings. The funding of the integrated maritime policy is also still the great unknown factor.
The Presidency achieved its aims: to bring together into a single declaration all of the elements to relaunch the dynamic of the integrated maritime policy, five years after it was presented in Lisbon. The Cypriot Prime Minister, Demetris Christofias, said on Monday that he was confident that the initiative came “at the right time and will be a reference point for the Member States towards their forthcoming efforts to be made to create employment and growth”. The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, said that the maritime basins “can help to re-establish the economy in a decisive way. We agree that the maritime economy may have a crucial contribution to make to growth and employment”.
Growth, employment and the blue economy. The first pillar of the declaration lays emphasis on the need to make shipping more competitive, to increase the share of short-sea shipping in intra-European trade, to make more use of maritime renewable energies and to support coastal tourism, make better use of the seabeds and reinforce aquaculture and blue biotechnology. The second pillar focuses on the blue economy. The declaration calls for the promotion of marine and maritime careers, to make the coastal areas less vulnerable to climate change and to include local communities in the maritime sector to allow them to benefit in return. It also talks of promoting cooperation and the exchange of best practices, notably with neighbour countries sharing maritime areas. Lastly, the Limassol declaration stresses the need to achieve a sharing of information by 2020 in the maritime field, in support of maritime surveillance, and to implement maritime spatial planning and the integrated management of coastal regions.
“In order to make progress, we need funding. This is why we must anchor the policy in the funding of the forthcoming European budget 2014-2020”, said Barroso. When asked about the subject, the Prime Minister of Cyprus declined to take a position in order not to prejudice the negotiations under way. In the view of Maritime Affairs Commissioner Maria Damanaki, “we now have to work to find money for this policy. We already have a good proposal but due to the crisis, this money will not be enough, and we must pay for this policy via cooperation with the Member States, with the regional governments, but also with the private sector”.
The ministers present in Cyprus are reported all to have welcomed the Cypriot initiative. However, many of them are believed to be in favour of maritime development in areas other than the five recommended in the Commission's communication for blue growth (biotechnology, tourism, aquaculture, mineral resources and renewable energies). Additionally, France, the United Kingdom and Germany are reported not to have got behind the idea of a directive on spatial planning, feeling that it is better to respect the principle of subsidiarity in this matter, according to one source. Various countries criticised the lack of ambition in the social and maritime security planks. Barroso refutes this criticism by stating that the declaration aims to work in favour of growth and employment.
The Seas at Risk association is concerned that this new dynamism for the integrated maritime policy will come at the expense of environmental protection, favouring traditional polluting maritime industries, aquaculture and marine mineral mines. The General Affairs Council of December will adopt conclusions on the subject. (MD/transl.fl)