eu4journalists

Water

4. Marine environment

"The EU has more sea than land; this is the world’s largest maritime territory. There are 1,200 ports. Some 90 percent of foreign trade and 40 percent of internal trade is carried by sea. The EU’s merchant fleet is the world’s largest. Coastal regions account for more than 40 percent of the EU’s gross domestic product (GDP) and are home to 60 percent of the EU’s population", points out the European Commission.

In the past, EU states have guarded their national maritime policies. In the last few years the transnational nature of marine issues and emergence of new common challenges such as climate change have brought about more joint EU action. Virtually every major issue facing Europe today, including energy, climate change, research, competitiveness and job creation, trade and transport has a maritime dimension.

In 2005, the Commission proposed a joint strategy to more effectively protect the marine environment across Europe. The Thematic Strategy on the Protection and Conservation of the Marine Environment , adopted in December, 2007, aims to achieve good environmental status of the EU's marine waters by 2021 and to protect the resource base upon which marine-related economic and social activities depend. The Marine Strategy constitutes the environmental pillar of the EU’s maritime policy, designed to achieve the full economic potential of oceans and seas without jeopardising the delicate marine environment.

In October, 2007, the Commission went further and presented its vision for an An Integrated Maritime Policy for the European Union (“The Blue Book”). The new Integrated Maritime Policy for the EU was endorsed by the European Council in December, 2007. The policy encompasses maritime transport, the competitiveness of maritime businesses, employment, scientific research, fisheries and the protection of the marine environment – all aspects of EU’s maritime space.

The Integrated Maritime Policy of the EU contains a detailed action plan covering these concrete goals:

• A European Maritime Transport Space without barriers
• A European Strategy for Marine Research
• National integrated maritime policies to be developed by Member States
• An integrated network for maritime surveillance
• A Roadmap towards maritime spatial planning by Member States
• Elimination of pirate fishing and destructive high seas bottom trawling
• Promotion of a European network of maritime clusters
• A review of EU labour law exemptions for the shipping and fishing sectors
• A European Marine Observation and Data Network
• A Strategy to mitigate the effects of Climate Change on coastal regions

As core action of the integrated maritime policy, the Commission adopted a set of guidelines in June, 2008, for the member states to enhance domestic coordination between all their sea-related sectoral policies and facilitate cooperation between different government bodies.

Regional policies

Interdependence between coastal countries is emphasised in the regions of the Mediterranean and Baltic seas.

The Mediterranean is the largest European sea. It is bordered onto by seven EU states, two accession countries and more than a dozen third countries. The Mediterranean environment is fragile and continues to deteriorate in spite of all efforts. For several of the countries bordering the Mediterranean, this deterioration costs billions of euros a year.

The regional cooperation strategy for the environment proposed by the Commission is aimed in particular at:

• helping partner countries create appropriate institutions, develop an effective policy and establish a legal framework that enables environmental concerns to be integrated into other sectors of activity
• reducing levels of pollution and the impact of uncontrolled activity
• preparing local administrations to react to emergencies as well as long-term issues
• making more sustainable use of land and sea areas
• increasing information, awareness and participation of the public
• encouraging regional cooperation among partner countries

The Baltic Sea is in an equal state of distress due to pollution. Several areas of the sea bottom have been found to be totally void of life.

The Helsinki Convention, signed in 1992, establishes a framework for cooperation between the member countries of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) on the prevention and control of pollution of transboundary watercourses by ensuring rational use of water resources with a view to sustainable development. The Convention covers the whole of the Baltic Sea area, including inland waters and the water of the sea itself, as well as the seabed. The present contracting parties are Denmark, Estonia, the European Community, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden, thus including all states bordering the Baltic Sea.