Draft Council conclusions on Integrated Maritime Policy - Hoofdinhoud

COUNCIL OF Brussels, 7 May 2010

THE EUROPEAN UNION

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POLGEN 62 POLMAR 3 PESC 547 COSDP 358 AGRI 145 TRANS 109 JAI 362 ENV 248 PECHE 79

NOTE from: Presidency to: Delegations Subject: Draft Council conclusions on Integrated Maritime Policy

Delegations will find attached draft Council conclusions on Integrated Maritime Policy for

discussion at the Friends of the Presidency Group meeting on 12 May 2010.

____________________

ANNEX

DRAFT COUNCIL CONCLUSIONS

INTEGRATED MARITIME POLICY

The Council of the European Union,

HAVING REGARD to:

• - 

  the Commission Communication on an Integrated Maritime Policy for the European Union

  and Action Plan, presented on 10 October 2007 1 ;

• - 

  the Presidency Conclusions of the European Council on 14 December 2007 2 ;

• - 

  the Council Conclusions on the Integrated Maritime Policy adopted on 16 November 2009 3 ;

• - 

  the Council Conclusions on Integration of Maritime Surveillance adopted on 17 November

  2009 4 ;

• - 

  the Council Conclusions on the Maritime Security Strategy adopted on 26 April 2010.

ACKNOWLEDING the recent developments on the Integrated Maritime Policy since November 2009; and CONFIRMING the validity of the integrated approach to maritime affairs;

REAFFIRMING that implementing and developing further the IMP in line with the European Council Conclusions of 14 December 2007 and the Council conclusions of 16 November 2009 on

the Progress Report of the European Commission 5 requires a continued financial underpinning, [as

proposed by the Commission in its Proposal for Regulation establishing a programme to support the

further development of an Integrated Maritime Policy 6 ];

RECALLING that the Commission Communication "EUROPE 2020 - A strategy for smart,

sustainable and inclusive growth" 7 reiterates the importance of the maritime sectors in the particular

context of resource efficiency, competitiveness and climate action;

EMPHASIZING the importance of the dialogue at international and regional level on an integrated maritime policy and other maritime issues in the competent fora, including on the ratification and implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and relevant existing international conventions based on UNCLOS; AND the need to cooperate, through capacity building and technology transfer, with developing countries and Small Island Developing States, to enhance their capacity to assess their maritime activities and develop an integrated maritime policy;

1 Doc 14631/07 - COM (2007) 575 final i

2 Doc 16616/07, (paragraph 58)

3 Doc 15175/09

4 Doc 15176/09

5 Doc 14363/09 - COM(2009) 540 final i

6 COM(2010)xxx of xx.xx.2010

7 Doc 7110/10 - COM (2010) 2020 final i

CONSIDERING that the Integration of Maritime Surveillance across sectors and borders is a priority objective as reflected by the EU Council in November 2009 and as reiterated by Member States on 21 April 2010;

RECOGNISING that the Union needs to actively contribute to a stable and secure global maritime domain by tackling the threats identified in the European Security Strategy, while ensuring coherence with EU internal policies including the EU Integrated Maritime Policy;

• 1. 

  [WELCOMES the proposal for a Regulation establishing a programme to support the further

development of an Integrated Maritime Policy for the period 2011-2013; AND WILL MAKE very effort to speed up the legislative process to ensure that the Regulation can enter

into force in January 2011;]

• 2. 

  WELCOMES "Europe 2020: A European strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive

growth"; CALLS on the Commission to pursue its work on the future sources of sustainable growth and development of coastal regions and to identify the untapped future potential of cutting-edge marine and maritime technologies, resources and services as drivers for new

innovations, competitiveness and, ultimately, growth and jobs;

• 3. 

  WELCOMES the continued implementation of the EU Strategy for Marine and Maritime

Research as a coherent European Research Area framework in support of a sustainable use of oceans and seas and aimed to provide the knowledge base for the implementation of the

IMP;

• 4. 

  ENCOURAGES the Commission to continue working on the integration of maritime

  policies in the Mediterranean along the line of its Communication of 11 September 2009;

  ENCOURAGES the Commission to continue working on an integrated approach with non

  EU Mediterranean coastal States and engage in the exchange of best practices

  complementing existing initiatives; INVITES the Commission and the Member States to

  continue the dialogue with the non European Mediterranean countries;

• 5. 

  RECALLS the Council Conclusions of 17 November 2009 1 calling for further development

of the strategic approaches to regional sea basins where there is a demand and a perspective of a clear added value, and therefore INVITES the Commission to present an EU strategy for the Atlantic region at the latest by June 2011, which is intended to address common challenges faced by the countries of the region, including marine research, maritime

surveillance, environmental and economic challenges;

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• 6. 

  CALLS upon the Commission to take into consideration the role and the importance of the

Outermost Regions of the EU and associated overseas countries and territories in the implementation of its IMP, and ENCOURAGES the Commission to develop specific actions with the view to strengthening the contributions of those regions and territories to

the IMP;

• 7. 

  WELCOMES the approach for developing a common vision on how to underpin the IMP by

optimizing the EU's role in international organizations and in making the best possible use of international partnership; CALLS on Member States and the Commission to continue to work on moving oceans and coasts higher up on the climate change agenda, reinforce the efforts at the international level for the protection of marine biodiversity, in particular in areas beyond national jurisdiction; CALLS on Member States and the Commission to initiate and promote continuous improvement of safety, security, environmental performance and working conditions, ensuring effective implementation of internationally

agreed rules by all flag, port and coastal States in the world;

• 8. 

  CONSIDERS of crucial importance to continue pursuing the actions to ensure freedom,

  safety and security of navigation and to sustain the international efforts to combat piracy, in

  particular in the framework of Atalanta, and notably to address the root causes of piracy;

• 9. 

  INVITES the Commission, Member States and next Presidencies to explore the

  opportunities and synergies that can be achieved by a further development of the

  international dimension of the integrated approach to maritime affairs;

• 10. 

  ENCOURAGES the Commission's Member State Expert subgroup on the integration of

maritime surveillance to continue working on the 'Roadmap towards establishing a Common Information Sharing Environment for the EU maritime domain' in collaboration with respective sectoral fora; ENCOURAGES appropriate cooperation between the civilian and military communities including with the EDA's Wise Pen Team; URGES the Commission to finalise the above mentioned Roadmap by end 2010 and to submit it for Council's persual. This roadmap would be further detailed in 2011 to take into account the results from relevant cross sectoral and cross-border projects and research and development projects in

particular the pilot projects and lessons learned from ESDP operations;

• 11. 

  WELCOMES the promising launch and active starting of the two pilot projects,

BlueMassMed and Marsuno, which give the needed political basis to the will of an enhanced cooperation in matter of Maritime surveillance; ENCOURAGES the two projects to be a catalyst for the necessary coherence to reach among the multiple initiatives in the domain and particularly in the closest civil-military cooperation; and STRONGLY RECOMMENDS to prepare and call for a pilot project on the Atlantic maritime spaces that

are of a paramount importance to Europe;

• 12. 

  RECALLS the Council's decision to undertake work together with the Commission with a

view to preparing options for the possible elaboration of a Security Strategy for the global maritime domain in the context of CSDP, including the possible establishment of a Task

Force 1 ;

• 13. 

  LOOKS FORWARD to the upcoming communication on the Marine Knowledge2020, to

increase operational efficiency of users of marine data, to promote competition between these users and to reduce uncertainties in knowledge of the behaviour of the seas and

oceans;

• 14. 

  LOOKS FORWARD to the outcome of the first Annual Forum on the Baltic Sea Strategy

  reporting on the first year of implementation of its maritime actions;

• 15. 

  WELCOMES the Atlas of the Seas recently developed by the Commission and

  ENCOURAGES stakeholders to avail of the new instrument for collaboration, the Maritime

  Forum;

• 16. 

  EXPRESSES gratitude to the Spanish Government and the European Commission for

  having organised the successful 3rd European Maritime Day Conference in Gijón on 18-21

  May 2010, being the most important gathering of maritime stakeholder communities;

• 17. 

  INVITES the Commission to make a proposal on the new modalities for the organisation of

the future European Maritime Days before the end of the Spanish Presidency. This new method should first start applying for the European Maritime Day of 2012; RECALLS the

Council Conclusions of 17 November 2009 2 with the proposal of the four countries which

have expressed their interest to host the annual European Maritime Day Stakeholders Conference and AGREES that the next central Stakeholders Conferences will be hosted in Poland (Gdansk) in 2011, Sweden (Göteborg) in 2012, Malta (Valletta) in 2013 and

Germany (Bremen) in 2014, thus guaranteeing the rotation between sea basins.

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