Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-10-21-Speech-4-057"
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"en.20101021.5.4-057"2
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"Mr President, Mrs Geoghegan-Quinn, ladies and gentlemen, I wish that the Chamber were full to bursting, not on my account or because this is my first report, but because of the subject matter, which is unfamiliar to many people, but nevertheless highly important.
You can see that there are many individual areas involved here, all of which are related to water. The objective of the integrated maritime policy is to develop these areas carefully and in harmony by working together. Many people are not aware of this, but it is hugely important.
The European Union has already achieved a great deal in this respect, but it needs to do even more. For this reason, I have focused in this report not so much on the individual areas, but primarily on what has happened in the last few years since the 2007 Blue Paper was published, what still needs to be developed and what has to be continued. These are the areas which I will mention again briefly in my conclusion.
Hardly anyone has heard of integrated maritime policy, but it is a decisive subject for us all, because it really is true that our future lies in the sea. A total of 70% of the earth’s surface consists of water. Population levels are growing, not in Europe, but throughout the rest of the world and by 2050 they will have reached 9 billion. The earth is becoming too small and many experts have already discovered the significant potential of the oceans. Our objective must now be to keep the resources of the seas safe for future generations by means of the integrated maritime policy.
So far only 10% of the oceans and their resources have been explored, but we already have 50 000 products which come from the sea. Efforts are now being made to produce energy from the sea and to extract raw materials for medicines, cosmetics and industry. While we are developing our overall maritime policy, it is important to ensure that the sea does not strike back, as it did in a sensational novel by bestselling author Frank Schätzing. We have the opportunity to turn the maritime economy into the largest area of growth in our economy as a whole. For this reason, people are talking today not only about green jobs, but also about blue jobs and blue growth. The coastline of the EU is 23 000 kilometres in length and one third of the population lives by the sea. Green shipping and offshore energy are areas where Europe has extensive expertise which can be developed further. For this reason, we need an integrated approach so that we can achieve all of these objectives with great care.
Which individual areas are covered by integrated maritime policy? The first of these areas is transport. Shipping can be described as the powerhouse of European transport, because 95% of global trade and 40% of internal European trade travels by sea, via ports with hinterland connections and logistics. Further growth is being forecast and therefore we must ensure in particular that we can reduce emissions by developing greener ships. The next area is shipbuilding. We have a great deal of expertise in this field, as I have already mentioned. We must make sure that we use this expertise productively to secure existing jobs and create new ones.
Of course, maritime policy also includes fisheries and aquaculture. Fish are not just a source of food. In addition, aquaculture is the area of agriculture and fisheries which is showing the highest levels of growth. It is important for us to be aware of this.
In the field of energy there is a great deal happening on and around the sea. We have oil and gas pipelines, oil platforms and offshore wind farms and there are already plans to fit tankers with sails so that they can cut their energy consumption by 20% by using wind energy. Wave power is an area with future potential and microalgae, which can be used as biomass, represent an almost unlimited source of energy.
In the area of research there is a focus on using blue biotechnology to develop medicines. We already have painkillers and anti-malaria drugs and work is currently underway on cancer medicines.
Protecting our coasts is an important issue which is also covered by integrated maritime policy. Our coasts are threatened by storm tides and we need to protect them, not only against the tides, but also against oil, piracy and smuggling. In addition, we must deal with the problem of asylum seekers in Italy.
Finally our coasts are also, of course, very popular tourist destinations and we are working on developing a sustainable tourism concept for the coastline."@en1
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