Brussels, 17/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Investment Bank (EIB), via its specialised branch, the Euro-Mediterranean investment and partnership facility (FEMIP), is holding a conference, in Athens on 18 and 19 April, on maritime cooperation in the Mediterranean, in collaboration with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the European Commission.
This meeting between experts of the sector and financiers will mark the completion of the preparatory phase begun in March 2011. At that date, the Commission (at the time Commissioner Maria Damanaki), the vice-president of the EIB, Philippe de Fontaine Vive, and the secretary general of the IMO, Efthimios Mitropoulos, undertook to define the direction to be taken for development cooperation in the marine and maritime sector in the Mediterranean region, and especially in the partner countries of the southern Mediterranean. A feasibility study, funded by the EIB/FEMIP, was launched. Its conclusions will be presented in Athens.
The study made it possible to identify current practices, problems and shortfalls in three main areas (investment in maritime infrastructure, social aspects and training, and surveillance and maritime security), as well as innovative ways to combine activities and assistance programmes of the European Commission, the EIB and the IMO in order to make up for those shortfalls.
In substance, the interest of such cooperation has already been established - 30% of all world trade and 25% of the world's oil transport cross the sea that lies between Europe and Africa, a sea which has on its banks a global market of over 150 million people in non-tourist season, the double during the summer season. Movements of goods and people across the Mediterranean create employment in over 450 ports of various sizes, for arrivals and departures. Fishing activity is less than in the Atlantic zone but, according to data provided, half of the EU's non-industrial fishing fleet is to be found in the Mediterranean. To this must be added growing marine aquaculture production.
The above-mentioned experts affirm that the very strong pressure exerted by economic activity on the Mediterranean ecosystem continues to grow. Although maritime traffic is severely affected by the current economic crisis, it is expected that it will continue to develop due to the growing needs of passengers, tourists and cargo, including for the transport of energy, they say. Cruise tourism, for example, is developing rapidly and the large ports of the Mediterranean each take in over one million cruise tourists each year. The infrastructure, as well as tourism-related and leisure-related installations, is deployed along coasts that are already densely populated and built-up. The experts say that human and economic expansion, that is growing all the time, has been accompanied by a gradual degradation of the environment. The Mediterranean has been classed (according to the MARPOL convention) among the “special zones” polluted by hydrocarbons since 1983 and by waste since May 2009. The shoreline is increasingly threatened, as is the unique cultural and natural heritage over 400 UNESCO heritage sites. To this must be added the human drama of the Mediterranean, where huge flows of illegal migrants seek a crossing.
Cooperation therefore appears useful at every level of human activity. In other words, the study concludes, the Mediterranean basin is faced with many problems of a marine and maritime kind. It is therefore essential to step up cooperation between all the coastal states so that growth is more sustainable and economic development can be reconciled with protection of the environment. (FB/transl.jl)