Brussels, 02/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the Commission adopted a communication by President Barroso and Commissioner Joe Borg kicking off a consultation to determine whether the EU needs to develop its own maritime policy. A task force made up of Commissioners in charge of policy areas related to the sea and chaired by the Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, Joe Borg, was set up to draft a Green Paper to be presented during the first half of 2006. This task force will be made up of Günter Verheugen (Enterprise and Industry), Jacques Barrot (Transport), Stavros Dimas (Environment), Danuta Hübner (Regional Policy), Janez Potocnik (Science and Research) and Andris Piebalgs (Energy). Other Commissioners may be invited to take part in discussions.
“The sea offers an unbelievable potential for the Union's economic growth (…). In order to make better use of this potential, we must take measures at European level”, Mr Borg told the press. According to the Commission, an “integrated approach” will help to avoid conflicts and improve synergy between maritime activities. The range of the EU's economic activities related to the sea, the oceans and the coastline is developing rapidly: maritime transport, fishing, aquaculture, oil and gas drilling, use of wind and wave energy, ship-building, tourism and marine research. In the future, the EU will exploit new marine resources such as non-living seabed resources (minerals, gas, hydrates) and living ones (biotechnologies). Answering questions from journalists, Mr Borg said that the objective of the Green Paper was firstly to identify “what we need: does the EU need a maritime policy, or is the status quo sufficient?” He said that all possible scenarios would be listed in the Green Paper, from simple “cooperation between the various sectors” to “an integrated Community approach to maritime activities”.
During the preparatory stages of the Green Paper, the Commission will hold consultation with national public authorities, various NGOs and elected representative organisations. Once the Green Paper has been presented, the consultation will be extended to the stakeholders and the general public. “The Commission will then take a decision on means of going forward”, said Mr Borg, who feels that the Commission should certainly draw inspiration from what has been done in various countries. The United States, Canada and Australia have developed a maritime policy, and certain countries of the EU also intend to meet this challenge, he noted.
Mr Borg listed certain facts that may help one to understand the importance of the sea to the EU: twenty Member States have a coastline (all except Luxembourg, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia); -the total length of the EU's coastline is 68,000 km (seven times longer than that of the US and four times longer than Russia's); -the maritime regions of Europe today house almost half of the EU's population and its gross domestic product (GDP); -over 1,000 sea ports in Europe handle over 1 billion tonnes/cargo a year; -the EU is the world's third-largest producer of fisheries products and aquaculture; -the sea is home to many sources of energy (oil and gas in particular, but also wind parks and “tidal power” plants which use tidal energy to produce electricity; -ship-building, ports, fishing and related service industries employ two and a half million.