European Maritime Day 2011 - Letter from Commissioner Damanaki to maritime stakeholders
Dear Maritime stakeholders,
Thank you for joining us in Gdańsk for the Maritime Day Conference and Stakeholder Workshops. I think you will share my congratulations to our hosts, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Poland, the Office of the Marshal of the Pomorskie Voivodeship, and the City of Gdańsk. The venue was inspiring and the multitude of maritime events that took place all over the week-end testified to the vitality of Maritime Europe.
This year, we wanted to put people first. We showed how the Integrated Maritime Policy is benefiting Europe's maritime and coastal communities. But we also envisaged new concrete steps to generate growth and employment. The maritime economy can make a strong contribution to the Europe 2020 agenda for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. I think this spirit of collaboration and urgency transpired from the debates.
Maritime Day is genuinely a stakeholder event. It helps you cross-fertilise ideas, but it also helps us revisit the Integrated Maritime Policy. Therefore, I would like to sketch some lessons we brought back from Gdansk and which we will develop with Member States and stakeholders in the coming months.
Blue Growth
As I announced in Gdansk, we want to go further in promoting maritime investments and in underpinning the strengths of emerging maritime sectors. The Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions said it rightly: the economy of the sea is not an economy of the past. Over two days, multiple opportunities were presented (tidal energy, raw materials, use of algae for cosmetics, bio-economy...), but how can these new ideas bring new jobs? Scotland introduced their plan to restructure disused ports as bases for offshore renewable development. This is the kind of smart and inclusive growth we must foster in Sea Basins all around Europe.
- In 2012, the Commission intends to publish a Communication on Blue Growth: sustainable growth from the oceans, seas and coasts. It will outline the most important growth scenarios and the domains where the EU can help unlock their frill potential. The Blue Growth strategy will recommend actions with regard to skills, research and capital that are needed to develop Europe's maritime economy.
- In the coming months, experts directly involved in these sectors will be interviewed extensively. Our findings will be presented during hearings in Brussels. A twelve-week stakeholder consultation will follow in the first part of 2012. We need the substantial input and collaboration of stakeholders to make Blue Growth a success.
Maritime employment
Today, maritime industries do not find enough people with the right qualifications, skills and experience. This situation is not acceptable when Europe suffers from high levels of unemployment. The lack of attractiveness of maritime careers not only limits growth in traditional sectors, but delays the emergence of new industries and new opportunities.
During Maritime Day, we explored the action undertaken across services in the Commission, as well as within the Baltic Sea Strategy, and in individual Member States, to develop and promote careers in the maritime economy. Highlights were the work of the Task Force on seafarers' careers, a project which creates a "Network of centres of excellence for maritime training" around the Baltic. Belgium also presented its reform of maritime education based on mobility - both mobility between sectors, including fisheries, and mobility between countries.
The result is that young Belgians are increasingly opting for maritime studies, in contrast to European trends.
- Following up on the debates, we want to extend those best practices all over Europe. If we want to attract people, in particular young people, to maritime careers and keep them in these careers, this requires a joint effort.
- Only an integrated approach can tackle the lack of mobility which makes maritime careers unattractive. With stakeholders from maritime industries and education, we will devise how EU's maritime know-how can be maintained by anticipating future needs.
Sea Basin Strategies
The maritime dimension of the Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region was in focus during Maritime Day in Gdansk. After almost 2 years of implementation, we took stock of its success and proved the value of cooperation at the level of sea basins. Sea Basin Strategies do not require additional funding. They make a better use of existing funds by providing a consistent and long term framework that is drawn up and regularly reviewed by stakeholders.
For instance, we tackled the substantial cooperation that is taking place in the Baltic on law enforcement. This is leading to more effective border control and to more efficient search and rescue activities for citizens around the Baltic. Likewise, the Clean Ship Project is looking at ways to reduce pollution from ships, while supporting innovation for more energy-efficient ships. This brought two lessons. First, Member States need to collaborate at Sea Basin level to reduce the environmental impact of maritime activities. Secondly, changes that need to be made can also bring growth, especially for innovation niches where Europe has a competitive advantage.
- The early success of the Baltic Sea Strategy shows us that sea-basins can be economic drivers. They ensure that the needs of stakeholders and actors on the ground are targeted in a long-term framework.
- The challenge is now to use the lessons learned from the Baltic Sea Region and apply them to other sea basins where a strategy brings added-value. Hand in hand with Member States, the Commission intends to develop a Sea Basin Strategy for the Atlantic (2011). I would like to thank the numerous stakeholders who participated in the consultation and showed their support. The Commission is also considering a Strategy for the Adriatic Ionian (2012) with which stakeholders will have many opportunities to be involved.
Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP)
Finally, the ecosystem based approach was at the heart of many discussions during Maritime Day. It is crucial to maintain healthy and productive marine ecosystems - healthy enough to sustain the exploitation of its resources by generations to come. This requires sound analysis and coherence when dealing with the complex multiple uses of the sea. I am glad to report that during Maritime Day we heard many expressions of support for Maritime Spatial Planning as a tool to accelerate investments in maritime sectors and to implement the ecosystem based approach in practice.
MSP brings legal stability and transparency for the development of maritime growth. The planning of major investments in sea basins needs to be considered on a cross-border basis.
An obvious example is the North Sea Energy Grid which is a necessary complement to the development of renewable energy sources. But other investments such as oil and gas, or aquaculture, also gain for managing available space as efficiently as possible. Operators have pointed out time and again that they need transparency, predictability and stability -something which MSP processes can contribute to across sea basins, if systematically applied by all Member States and with comparable approaches. Cross-border cooperation on MSP will also contribute significantly to the implementation of the MSFD and Natura 2000 legislation - including in support of the work on a coherent network of Marine Protected Areas.
- There is added value in ensuring a joint EU-level approach to MSP. The sustainable growth of our maritime economy can only be achieved if all maritime actors in a sea basin can work together under common conditions. Applying the piecemeal approach that has been in place so far can only hinder the development of emerging maritime sectors.
- Stakeholder involvement is one of the ten identified key-principles for successful MSP. To work in a transparent process and bring all the interest on the table in order to take informed decisions on MSP, is one of the main factors of success.
We will continue these discussions with you. The integrated maritime policy must develop hand in hand with its stakeholders, and European Maritime Day in Gdansk bore witness to this shared commitment. Likewise, we would like to hear from you on the way the Commission and the host country could improve European Maritime Day. You have all received an evaluation questionnaire. We are looking forward to receiving further comments at MARE-European-Maritime-Dav@ec.europa.eu.
In this spirit of collaboration, I would like to invite you to join us for Maritime Day 2012 in Gothenburg.
Sincerely yours,
Maria Damanaki
