Joe Borg unveils EU maritime blueprint today

Joe Borg, Malta's European Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, will today take centre stage in Brussels when, together with Commission President José Manuel Barroso, he will launch a maritime blueprint intended to integrate tens of maritime-related activities in the 25 member states into a holistic EU maritime policy.

The initiative is considered to be one of the pillars of the Commission's five-year mandate, its first attempt at trying to have its own maritime policy.

Today's launching of the Green Paper will kick-start one of the largest ever public consultation exercises in the EU's history. Hundreds of meetings with maritime stakeholders across the EU are planned for the coming months.

The consultation will run until the end of June 2007 when the Commission is expected to publish a communication on the basis of the results. By the end of next year the Commission will propose the next steps to be taken.

The Green Paper, entitled Towards A Future Maritime Policy For The Union: A European Vision For The Oceans And Seas, is the result of a Commission decision taken in March 2005 to launch a consultation on the future of Europe's seas. Mr Barroso had asked Dr Borg to steer a maritime task force and the Green Paper is the result of intense cooperation between seven commissioners.

A Commission spokesman yesterday told The Times the Green Paper will deal with various specific maritime sectors including transport, shipping, trade, coastal and port-based industries, offshore, traditional and alternative energies, fisheries, aquaculture, marine research and tourism.

"Countless areas of human activity often affect one another and can have an impact on our oceans and the quality of life they help sustain. Too often, however, the sectors which impact on the maritime environment operate independently - each has its own structures, embodies its own culture and vision, and is run according to its own rules. Yet, they all depend on the same resource," the spokesman noted.

He said the Green Paper seeks to highlight the interconnections and interdependence of these different domains.

"It points out how, for example, the development of port infrastructure has to be weighed against the protection of local ecosystems, the promotion of coastal aquaculture and tourism development, as well as on the benefits of economic growth through foreign trade.

"It shows how fishing vessels, container ships, pleasure boats, oil companies and wind farms, for example, have to jostle for position in our increasingly crowded offshore waters.

"It also underlines the fact that this convergence of myriad different issues is not the exception, but the norm, for it reflects the underlying wealth and diversity of Europe's seas.

"Europe's coastline is thousands of kilometres long, even longer than the coasts of the United States or the Russian Federation.

Over two-thirds of the European Union's external borders are coastline, and the maritime spaces under the jurisdiction of its member states are larger than their terrestrial territory.

It is this geography which has made us a major player not only in the global economy, but in culture and communications too," he said.