Sea policy promises jobs and growth for Europe

By Emily Smith

Date: 23/03/06

Sluggish EU growth and employment levels could be re-invigorated by the maritime sector, according to the European Commission.

A draft paper on a future EU maritime policy, seen by European Voice, aims for the first time to pull together the planning on a huge range of maritime issues, from shipbuilding and oil exploration to fishing and tourism.

An improved EU maritime policy could be a vital part of the Lisbon Agenda for economic competitiveness, it says.

Shipping and ports alone are already said to be "essential for international trade and commerce", producing 350,000 jobs and EUR 20 billion a year.

Niko Wijnolst, chairman of the Dutch Maritime Network, said the maritime sector had the potential to "grow faster than any other industry in Europe". "The paper," he added, "will set in process major changes for the next decade" and showed that the Commission was "ready to take away obstacles to this growth and to help people grab market opportunities".

"We now have to sort out what should be done at EU level and what should stay with the member states," he said.

The Commission says there is no question of taking power away from national authorities.

One source said that introducing a Commission department to handle all maritime issues would be as unworkable as having an 'earth department'.

A Commission official said the paper was first and foremost about changing the way countries think about the ocean. The problem of deciding which ministry should represent the national governments at informal talks on maritime policy with the Commission had already, he said, started a change.

The idea of encouraging traditionally disparate maritime sectors such as transport and marine science to work more closely together for the good of the economy is in line with a recent global trend.

Australia drew up its own "integrated ocean policy" in 1998 and the US and Canada now have similar strategies.

Commission President José Manuel Barroso also launched a national debate, together with a "strategic ocean commission", before leaving his job as prime minister of Portugal in 2004.

This is, however, the first time different sovereign states will have been asked to produce a joint maritime policy.

The paper is to be sent to all Commission's departments this week for their input, before being adopted on 31 May.

Publication will be followed by a year of consultation with all interested parties. No concrete proposals are expected before the second half of 2007.

The document also asks Europe to "maintain and improve the status of...the ocean itself", building on proposals published last year in a related environmental marine strategy.

But conservation groups have already begun to question these environmental credentials.

Saskia Richartz of Greenpeace European Unit warned that Europe would "never assure the future of its maritime sector until it makes sustainability the bedrock of its thinking".

In its current draft, she said, the paper showed "an alarming disregard for the limits to which we can push our natural environment".

"It even implies that Europe could cash in on global climate change, if only we can sell vessels capable of navigating through the Arctic's melting ice-caps and shorten the trade route to China," she added.

Article anticipates a Green Paper in which the European Commission was planning to set out an integrated maritime policy for the European Union.