Baltic and European news
Baltic sea "test-bed for EU maritime policy"
Friday 6 February 2009
A forthcoming EU strategy to improve the Baltic marine environment will be the first "integrated strategy at a sea-basin level" and serve as a "model" for other maritime regions, EU fisheries commissioner Joe Borg told a conference in Rostock, Germany, on Friday.
The conference marked the end of a consultation period of over a year on an EU Baltic Sea strategy (EE 30/09/08 http://www.endseurope.com/15568) originally requested by member states (EE 17/12/07 http://www.endseurope.com/14460). It is due in June and expected to be a main priority for Sweden when it takes over the EU presidency in the second half of this year.
One of four main goals of the strategy will be to improve the environmental state of the Baltic Sea. It will implement the EU's new maritime policy (EE 10/10/07 http://www.endseurope.com/14102) and build on a Baltic Sea action plan adopted by the Helsinki commission in autumn 2007 (EE 15/11/07 http://www.endseurope.com/14266).
The Baltic Sea has the potential to become a forerunner in maritime spatial planning, Mr Borg said in Rostock (EE 25/11/08 http://www.endseurope.com/17166). The commission is ready to launch a pilot project on how to make maritime surveillance systems interoperable across borders and sectors, Mr Borg added.
Follow-up: Conference homepage http://www.conference-rostock.de/welcome.en.html, Mr Borg's speech
and EU Baltic Sea strategy pages http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/cooperation/baltic/#council.
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