Marine Knowledge 2020: a sustainable future in the sea

The European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee today voted on Maria do Céu Patrão Neves' initiative Report on ‘Marine Knowledge 2020: Seabed mapping for promoting sustainable fisheries’, which was unanimously adopted.

The Report concerns the Green Paper presented by the European Commission on ‘Marine Knowledge 2020: from seabed mapping to ocean forecasting’, integrated in the actions aimed at meeting the targets of the Europe 2020 Strategy for the marine and maritime sectors and to develop and expand the ‘Blue Growth’.

Maria do Céu Patrão Neves MEP specified the relevance of achieving a better and broader knowledge of the sea and emphasised that due to the potential for promoting development, innovation and job creation in the marine and maritime sectors, this initiative can play a key role in overcoming the generalised crisis that is currently affecting Europe.

The Portuguese MEP also proposes the integration of relevant fisheries-related data in the European Marine Observation and Data Network, complying with EU Regulations to ensure adequate levels of confidentiality of information, protection of intellectual property and the safeguarding of legitimate commercial interests.

The Marine Knowledge 2020 initiative includes a project to prepare a multi-resolution digital map of the seabed of European waters by 2020, comprising multidisciplinary data that will be available for the benefit of multiple users and stakeholders, including the public and private sectors and the civil society. By providing access to portals with a wide content of information about the sea and human activities that take place in the marine environment, this initiative will help maximise human, logistic and financial resources.

Blue Growth is a strategy set out by the European Commission in order to achieve a blue economy in the fisheries sector. It will ensure that industry and public authorities can take advantage of new opportunities to create jobs, guaranteeing that this growth is sustainable.

All these will create the conditions required to develop new and sustainable activities in the marine and maritime sectors in the near future.