EU commissoner outlines new maritime policy

Europe's new maritime policy aims to deliver “coherent and wide-ranging” policies for the whole of the EU,  said Joe Borg.

The commissioner for fisheries and maritime affairs said, “Apart from being the product of two and a half years of work, it is also underpinned by a number of key political priorities.”

He said, “If these policies are developed carelessly this will threaten the very foundations upon which a substantial part of the wealth of Europe depends.”

The Maltese official was delivering a keynote address in Florence to the general assembly of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR).

The annual event brings together representatives from 150 regions in some of Europe’s outermost regions and, this year, was also attende by French presidential candidate, Segolene Royal.

Borg said the maritime policy, unveiled on 10 October, marks an “important turning point” when a “decisive shift” has taken place away from a period of reflection to one of action.

He said that next year the commission will develop a roadmap to facilitate the development of maritime “spatial planning”.

He also said that establishing a maritime data and information infrastructure is of the “utmost importance”.

His comments were echoed by Joao Mira Gomes, Portuguese maritime affairs minister, who, speaking in Lisbon on Monday at a meeting of EU maritime affairs ministers, said the new policy offered a “great” opportunity to develop the economies of maritime regions.

However, the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) has expressed concern that the commission’s new policy, or ‘blue paper’, has generated “widespread” disappointment among European seafarers.

Its political secretary, Philippe Alfonso, said, “These proposals fail to address the dramatic employment crisis affecting EU seafarers and to strike a balance between social and economic pillars in search of more competitiveness for the sector.”                      

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