The European Union (EU) on Monday urged its member states to adopt a more integrated and coordinated approach to maritime policy to cope with the challenges facing the27-member bloc.
"Coordination is crucial for the successful for the integrated approach," Joao Mira Gomes, Portugal's secretary of state for national defense and maritime affairs, told reporters here at the end of the ministerial meeting on maritime policy of the EU.
He said that to achieve an EU integrated and coordinated approach, the EU member states should be encouraged to adopt domestically coordinated policy on maritime affairs.
He also called for coordination with third countries concerning maritime affairs, especially the Mediterranean countries.
The one-day meeting, which drew Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, ministers of 27 EU members, and Norway and Iceland, and representatives of EU institutions, mainly discussed the EU Integrated Maritime Policy put forward earlier this month by the European Commission.
The new policy aims at a thriving maritime economy and the full use of the sea's potential in a sustainable manner. It will require a new, integrated and cross-sectoral approach to maritime affairs, and the development and delivery of a coherent and wide-ranging work program.
It requires the development of fully integrated horizontal actions (notably on data collection and use, maritime spatial planning, and surveillance), and a holistic approach to maritime governance at all levels, and in particular within regions and EU member states, according to Gomes, whose country holds the rotating six-month EU presidency.
Under the proposed policy, the main political priorities underpin a total of 26 actions.
Gomes said the meeting was very productive in collecting different views from the EU member states concerning the maritime policy, and the EU's Portuguese presidency would be able to start preparations for conclusions to be submitted to the EU summit in December.
These conclusions should constitute a sound basis for the establishment of a holistic and more effective EU maritime policy in the 21st century, which will necessarily entail the promotion of concrete and carefully targeted measures in 2008, during the EU's Slovenian and French presidencies, he said.
Earlier Monday, Barroso called for more coordinated approach toward the EU's maritime policy and more investment in marine research and technology so as to promote economic development without deteriorating marine environment.
"Our main challenge, however, lies in being able to promote economic development based on the sea without at the same time aggravating the state of the marine environment," said Barroso in a speech at the meeting.
To deal with the challenge, he said, the EU should "start, firstly, by improving the very way we approach and take decisions on maritime affairs" and "invest more in marine sciences, on research and on technology."
"Combating the environmental degradation of our oceans and seas is an urgent priority," he said, adding that marine science, research and technology are crucial for the sustainable development of sea-based activities.
The EU has almost 70,000 kilometers of coastline and borders six seas and oceans -- including its outermost regions and islands. With the recent enlargement, Europe has a new maritime dimension, the Black Sea.
Half of all Europeans live nowadays less than 50 kilometers from the coast and maritime-based industries and services produce between 3 percent to 5 percent of the European GDP. The development of an integrated maritime policy is therefore essential to all member states, even to those which do not have a coastline.
Source: Xinhua
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