The European Union is to invest some €560 million into protecting the seas. It made the announcement on Thursday 5 October at the opening of the 4th global Our Ocean conference which it is hosting in Malta to encourage promises of definite commitments from all of the participants – international organisation, public authorities and the private sector (see EUROPE 11874).
The investment will finance 36 initiatives to improve the health, cleanliness, safety and security of seas across the globe, increasing efforts to tackle the multiple pressures on this, one of humanity’s common goods – plastic pollution, overfishing, crime at sea, damage to marine life, climate change.
“I am proud to announce – in the name of the European Union - that the European Commission is putting €560 million on the table, with 36 concrete actions for Our Ocean. These actions span from global cooperation with our partners, to small gestures in our everyday life. What is needed is a global alliance and everyone must be involved daily. It’s a collective responsibility”, said High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Commission Vice-President Federica Mogherini.
Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Commissioner Karmenu Vella, stressing the importance of sustainable fishing and marine protection, was delighted to announce that the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean was “set to adopt the EU’s proposal to establish a Marine Protected Area, the first of its kind, in the Adriatic Sea”.
Of the financial envelope announced by the EU, €37.5 million will go to maritime security and counter-piracy along the south-eastern African coastline and in the Indian Ocean; €29 million to the launch of a new SWAIMS programme (Support to West Africa Integrated Maritime Security); €8.5 million to improve port security in West and Central Africa; €1 million to support the upgrading of the ICT systems of EU maritime authorities; €250 million to fund marine and maritime research; €14.5 million to promote a sustainable blue economy in the European Union; €23 million to the marine environment monitoring service of a satellite monitoring programme (Copernicus) in 2017 and 2018; €10 million to a project with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to reduce CO2 emissions from maritime transport; €1.5 million to reducing black carbon emissions in the Arctic; €20 million to support the management of marine protected areas in African, Caribbean and Pacific. The list is not exhaustive. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)