EU to tackle concerns on maritime issues

Joe Borg, the EU fisheries and maritime affairs commissioner, welcomed the "indispensable contribution" which Europe's regions are making to future marine policy during a speech at the Sea Our Future conference held at the Committee of the Regions in Brussels.

Dr Borg, who was welcomed to the CoR by secretary-general Gerhard Stahl, said the committee could play an important role in the development of the policy by identifying priorities and acting as a focus for stakeholders.

The Commissioner stressed that future maritime strategy would be "people-centred" and would seek to respond to public concerns about depleting fish stocks and marine pollution.

"The tragic Erika and Prestige incidents are still painfully alive in the minds of European citizens," he said.

Dr Borg, who leads the task force preparing the Commission's 2006 Green Paper on EU maritime policy, also pledged that the new policy will promote highly skilled jobs in the maritime field and growth in sectors such as tourism, fish farming and sea-ranching. He stressed that the new policy will also try to reduce red tape. He insisted that the EU should have a policy which addresses the specific characteristics of different maritime regions within the EU.

During the conference, a draft CoR own-initiative opinion, calling for coordinated regional approach to maritime policy, was presented by CoR rapporteur Uwe Doring, the Minister for Justice, Employment and European Affairs of the government of Schleswig-Holstein of Germany. He recommended that, as part of the preparatory work on the Green Paper, public meetings be held in coastal regions in order to bring regional and local expertise to bear and to raise public awareness of maritime issues.

The conference was organised by the German Land of Schleswig-Holstein in cooperation with the states of Hamburg, Bremen, Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, as well as the CoR and the European Commission.