A sea change for Europe

"A source of romance, but also of separation, unknown perils and grief."

With their references to Oscar Wilde, Baudelaire and Shakespeare, alongside a flowery description of the sea cited above, drafts of the forthcoming EU maritime policy do not read like the average European Commission document.

The Commission says that is because planning an EU maritime policy is not an average EU idea. At least one official believes it could change the way Europe thinks about all its future proposals.

The Green Paper on maritime policies will seek to get dozens of different interest groups thinking in the same way.

Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg hopes to see an end to the days when shipping plans could be established without checking the breeding patterns of fish, or an offshore wind farm could end up too close to a nature reserve.

Currently due to be published on Wednesday 7 June, the Green Paper therefore has a huge scope. It could potentially affect everyone from oil magnates to tourist officers, from fishermen to yacht owners.

Or it could overreach itself and fall flat, too broad to raise much interest from anyone.

It could attract the attention of a huge number of powerful players, with billions generated every year by maritime industries.

The EU has its largest internal energy supply under water, in the shape of oil and gas from the North Sea.

Around 90% of global cargo is transported by sea, with 3.5 million tonnes of that coming through EU waters every year.

The high-profile environmental lobby in Europe also has a large stake in the sea, with endangered species from dolphins to coral making their home in salt water.

The Commission is hoping these various groups will not decide their interests are better served by existing policies and agreements than by a pan-EU strategy.

Popular interest could also be stirred by the debate, which will look at the importance of popular seaside holiday destinations from Paphos to Penzance.

Nearly half of all Europeans live less than 50 kilometres from the sea and no one anywhere in the EU is further than 700km away.

Fears that ocean levels are raising thanks to climate change has also made many people more aware of the sea, even if they cannot see it from home.

Or citizens could be blissfully unaware of a debate on a Green Paper, or dismiss it as more Brussels meddling.

The signs so far are inconclusive. Some environmentalists already seem to have written the strategy off as another Commission dead duck.

On the other hand, the vast majority of member states sent their ideas for a strategy to the Commission while the Green Paper was being planned. Even some landlocked countries like Austria are said to be anxious for a strong maritime policy, hoping that if the sea becomes more important to the EU economy, so will the inland waterways leading there.

And the strategy could in theory raise more tensions than even the annual fight to settle fishing quotas for European fleets.

Getting traditionally disparate sectors to work more closely together could also, according to some observers, mean changing governments' approach to coastal policing.

On-board technology currently used to check that fishing boats are not exceeding their catch quotas could also be adapted for security measures. That could mean anything from keeping an eye on coastal vandalism to looking out for signs of terrorism and people trafficking.

And debating a co-ordinated maritime policy will also involve Europe in the ever-sensitive matter of when policies are best handled at an EU level.

There is, so far, no question of a single European maritime policy, which would in any case involve so many different issues as to be entirely impracticable. The Commission says as well, that local and regional authorities are often best placed to look after the coast.

Nonetheless, the notoriously sensitive fishing lobby will not be the only group wary of the slightest hint of handing more power to Brussels.

Europe now has plenty of time to decide how much it wants a maritime policy: consultation on the Green Paper will go on for the unusually long period of 13 months.

If stuck for ideas, Europeans have several global examples of maritime strategies from which to learn. In the past ten years both Canada and the US have begun their own integrated ocean policies.

And before taking over as president of the Commission in 2004, Jos�anuel Barroso started talks on the first-ever maritime policy in the EU for his homeland, Portugal.

Though not around to oversee the development of his native maritime strategy, Barroso may be hoping that, in Brussels, his ship is coming in.

Article anticipates the adoption of a European Commission Green Paper on an EU maritime policy, scheduled at the time of writing for 7 June 2006.
Article is part of a European Voice Special Report, 'EU maritime policy'.

• Primary Source

European Commission: DG Fisheries and Maritime Affairs: Maritime Affairs https://ec.europa.eu/maritimeaffairs/home_en

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