Europe gets a new integrated maritime policy

The European Commission published, on 10 October 2007, a paper entitled "An Integrated Maritime Policy for the European Union", also known as the Blue Book, and a working document discussing the Blue Book in greater detail, in the form of an Action Plan for the period of 2007-2009.

The European Heads of State and Government, in their conclusions of the European Council on 14 December 2007, welcomed the Commissions' proposals, thus giving the birth of a new integrated European maritime policy. This policy is of great importance for the UBC and its member cities, linked by the Baltic Sea. Therefore, UBC has been active during the consultation process.

UBC formulated its position and passed the comments last year on the previous discussion paper - the "Green Paper on European Maritime Policy" - to the European Commission. UBC has also participated in a number of international conferences of the European Maritime Policy. Several member cities had been active on this issue, including Turku, which had organised in July 2006 the first BSR - related conference on the Green Paper, with the participation of Commissioner Joe Borg. Turku also organised in June 2007, in St. Petersburg, a seminar on this subject, with high-ranking representatives from Russia, Finland and the European Commission.

The new European Maritime Policy is in many ways very significant for the UBC and its members. The integrated approach to the issues linked to the Baltic Sea is a must to ensure that the values of sustainable development and need for economic prosperity can be balanced.

Members have a keen interest to follow the development of an integrated approach to the issues of governance: local and regional, national and European. UBC and its cities should be active in the forthcoming process to formulate national integrated maritime policies, and to ensure that main non-EU partners in our region, especially the Russian Federation and Norway, are part of the process.

Another important dimension is to raise public awareness of the maritime sector and of the need for integrated maritime policy. Among new initiatives is the proposal to observe annually a European Maritime Day on 20 May. It is hoped that many UBC cities will observe this date.

The UBC Executive Board, in its recent Brussels meeting, decided to include the European Maritime Policy as one of its political priorities in the Action Plan 2008-2009. It was also proposed that an in-house Task Force should be established under the UBC Board to follow development in this field and formulate proposals for the UBC and its cities. The Task Force, to be coordinated by Turku, will be open to all member cities, which will be contacted shortly.