Towards a future Maritime Policy for the Union: a European vision for the oceans and seas

The Committee on Transport and Tourism adopted the initiative report by Willi PIECYK (PES, D) in reponse to the Commission’s Green paper “Towards a future maritime policy for the Union: a European vision for the oceans and seas”. The main issues highlighted in the report are as follows:

Climate change as the greatest challenge to maritime policy: the committee stresses that the EU must play a leading and pioneering role in combating climate change through at least three policies: (i) the emissions from ships of substances such as CO2, SO2 and nitrogen oxide must be drastically reduced; (ii) the feasibility of emissions trading for shipping must be carefully assessed; (iii) renewable energies such as wind and solar power must be introduced and promoted for shipping. The Commission is urged to propose legislation in order to effectively reduce maritime greenhouse gas emissions and the EU is urged to take decisive action to include the maritime sector in international climate conventions. The committee believes that it is important to coordinate a timetable for drawing up marine strategy action plans with important programmes at EU level, such as the EU's Structural Funds, in order to reap the greatest possible benefits of coordination with existing programmes. It considers that the action plans should, therefore, be drawn up by 2012 at the latest in order to facilitate coordination with the drafting of the structural programmes from 2014. The coordination with the EU's agricultural fund is of particular importance for those regions in which agriculture is responsible for a significant portion of discharges into the sea.

Better European shipping with better European ships: stressing that sea transport is an essential part of the world’s economic system, and that goods transported by ship is at present one of the least environmentally damaging methods of transport; the committee considers, nevertheless, that shipping has a considerable environmental cost, and therefore a sustainable balance between environmental protection and economic use of Europe’s oceans is essential, whereby guaranteeing sustainability must be an absolute priority. It calls on the Commission to safeguard this balance when designing its (future) proposals on maritime and port policy. Recognising that ship-source air pollutant emissions will exceed those from land-based sources in the foreseeable future, the Commission and the Member States to take urgent measures to cut emissions from the shipping sector and for the Commission to come forward with proposals: (i) to establish NOx emission standards for ships using EU ports; (ii) to designate the Mediterranean Sea and the North-East Atlantic as Sulphur Emission Control Areas (SECAs) under the MARPOL Convention; (iii) to lower the maximum allowed sulphur content in marine fuels used in SECAs by passenger vessels from 1.5% to 0.5%; (iv) to introduce fiscal measures such as taxes or charges on SO2 and NOx emissions from ships; (v) to encourage the introduction of differentiated port and fairway charges favouring vessels with low SO2 and NOx emissions; (vi) to encourage the use of shore-side electricity by ships when in port; (vii) for an EU directive on the quality of marine fuels.

The ‘Transport’ Council is urged to discuss the ‘Third maritime safety’ package very soon and to take a decision, together with Parliament, so that there is no question of a credibility gap. As for the Commission, it is urged to reinforce all measures relating to civil and criminal liability and to tighten vigilance with regard to the application of the rules on the mandatory use of double hulls.

MEPs call for the introduction of a European quality label for ships, in line with the IMO white list classification scheme, meeting the latest safety standards and social conditions, which will give these ships favoured treatment with regard to port state controls. They urge the Commission to create vocational retraining plans for fishermen, encouraging them to focus on new practices that promote the use of knowledge relating to work at sea. They note that the creation of conditions ensuring hygiene, safety and comfort for workers in the fishing industry, both for fishermen themselves and for people working in sectors upstream and downstream, is a key objective of a policy for the seas and oceans.

As regards the dismantling of ships, the committee calls on the Commission to draw up proposals to improve working conditions in the docks where the ships in question are dismantled and to explore all the possibilities in the area of criminal law made available by the Court of Justice with the ‘polluter pays’ principle applying in the maritime sector as is the case in other sectors. The Commission is called upon to develop a proposal for a ‘green passport’ to be carried with ships’ papers, listing all the toxic substances they contain. The committee believes that the Community should address the ship recycling issue by concluding a mandatory international Convention - foreseen for 2008 or 2009 - and in the meantime follow the IMO guidelines.

Better European coastal policy including better European ports: it is considered that the participation of regional and local stakeholders is essential for the success of a European maritime policy. The committee proposes the design of an EU “label” and that prizes be awarded to exemplary maritime regions as a way of promoting best practice; underlines the significance of its initiative, which should be promoted by the Commission, regarding the establishment of a European Maritime Day in celebration of the maritime sector. It stresses that pilot courses on ‘maritime education’ should be introduced in secondary schools with the support of the Commission.  It encourages regions and Member States to use cohesion policy instruments in order to achieve further integration in maritime and coastal policy, promote entrepreneurship and set up SMEs, thus helping to overcome the problem of seasonal employment. Member States and Commission, in view of the air pollution in many port cities and regions, to significantly to increase incentives for land-based power supplies to ships in port when this is cost-effective and results in environmental benefits. It calls for Council Directive 2003/96/EC restructuring the Community framework for the taxation of energy products and electricity to be revised in order that those Member States taking advantage of tax-free bunker oil, as provided for by Article 14 of that Directive, would be obliged to exempt land-based electricity from tax to the same extent.  A revision of Directive 2000/59/EC on port reception facilities for ship-generated waste and cargo residues is called for so that all ships calling at a Member State's ports would discharge 100% of their solid and liquid waste. The committee favours the creation of more maritime clusters which take advantage of the positive experience gained and good practices already being carried out in this domain and believes that these examples should be followed and promoted and calls on the Member States to take measures to enhance the economic competitiveness of coastal regions by encouraging research, the creation of centres of maritime excellence and technological development and innovation as well as inter-business cooperation (networks, clusters, public partners) and the provision of improved support services aimed at reducing the dependence of those regions on a very limited number of (traditional) economic activities.

The importance, within a holistic maritime policy, of developing and implementing an integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) policy covering the multiple uses of the coastal zones and their impact on development policies is stressed. The committee calls on the Commission to take action to control pollutants (environmental pollution of the seas) arising from agricultural runoff, sewage or industrial effluents and litter often plastic, which can choke sea mammals, turtles and birds.

Sustainable maritime environment: the committee recalls its resolution of 14 November 2006 on a Thematic Strategy on the Protection and Conservation of the Marine Environment and reiterates, in particular, the need for : the EU to have as its overarching objective the sustainable use of the seas and the conservation of marine ecosystems, including a strong EU policy on marine protection, preventing further loss of biodiversity and deterioration of the marine environment; the inclusion of a common EU-wide definition of good environmental status; the European Environment Agency to provide regular assessments of the marine environment, which necessitates improvements in national data collection, reporting and exchange; recognition of the importance of prior consultation, coordination and cooperation with neighbouring states in the adoption and implementation of the forthcoming Marine Strategy Directive.

Integrated fisheries policy: the committee takes the view that fishing activity must contribute to the maintenance of viable coastal communities; stresses that for this to be achieved inshore, small-scale fishing interests and recreational anglers must be given access to fisheries, and that such fishing activities encourage tourism, protect our rich coastal heritage and help to keep our seaside communities together. The Commission is called upon to take due account of successful experiences in fisheries management by local and regional authorities so that they can be applied as models in other regions, particularly those experiences that involve integrated and sustainable management of the sea through a ban on non-selective fishing gear, matching the size of fishing fleets to available resources, coastal planning, regulating tourism activities, such as cetacean watching, drawing up management plans for sites in the Natura 2000 network and creating protected areas. It stresses that valuable advisory role of Regional Advisory Councils (RACs) should be recognised and RACs should be consulted on marine management. It also calls for increased efforts to end the disgraceful by-catch and discard problem which is a key consequence of the Total Allowable Catches (TACs) and quotas regime of the CFP.

MEPs highlight the increasing socio-economic significance of fish farming as marine fish stocks diminish worldwide and they believe that the worldwide annual sale of aquaculture products will soon exceed the sale of wild catch.

Maritime research, energy, technology and innovation: the committee calls for maritime research to be enshrined in the EU’s Seventh Framework Research Programme as a crosscutting theme and as a key topic for future framework research programmes and urges that the oceans’ potential contribution to solving Europe’s energy problems be included as the main focus of research, which must be encouraged. The Commission is called upon to draw up an offshore wind energy action plan embodying an efficient European approach to offshore technology, promoting more extensive networking and indicating the prospects for achievement of power generation capacity of at least 50 GW by 2020: therefore expects above all the adoption of a 'one-stop shop' approach and the promotion of an intelligent offshore network infrastructure; welcomes the Commission recommendation for a European strategic Energy Technology Plan and urges that efforts be focused on the large-scale development of offshore wind energy.

Blue biotechnology is considered as one of the most promising technologies of the coming decades, with many possible uses in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, the food industry and environmental remediation and it believes that research efforts in this area should be strengthened and Member States could take advantage of the creation of Blue Investment Funds, as proposed by the Green paper and that better synergy could be achieved by better coordinating Member State research efforts in this field. The committee emphasises that any blue technology development must be strongly regulated and properly assessed in order to avoid overexploitation and further damage to already fragile and threatened marine ecosystems.

Lastly, the committee calls for a continuing integrated approach to European maritime policy in the future and stresses that this should include at least regular coordination meetings of the relevant Commissioners and regular public exchanges of views with the other stakeholders, for example in biennial conferences. Future Council Presidencies are called upon to include maritime policy in their work programmes and the Commission is also called upon to indicate annually all EU-funded projects with maritime relevance.