The Seas, Rivers, Islands and Coastal Areas Intergroup follows on from the Seas and Coastal Areas Intergroup launched in 2010.
Recent EU policies and initiatives related to maritime topics such as the Integrated Maritime Policy, the Directive on Maritime Spatial Planning, the new European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and the Strategy for Blue Growth reflect the European Institutions’ awareness of the possibilities offered by the seas and oceans. These opportunities are one of the major drivers of economic growth of the European Union’s territories as long as they support sustainable development.
While the European Parliament continues to take action on maritime matters, the Seas, Rivers, Islands and Coastal Areas Intergroup works to ensure that Europe of the Sea remains a major, cross-cutting and well-identified issue. Such an approach allows issues to be addressed that relate to the marine environment, maritime industries, research, maritime transport, exploitation of living marine resources and European maritime and coastal areas in a specific and transversal way.
The Intergroup also has a strong Island component. It will therefore ensure that the European Union continues to take into account the specific issues faced by the Islands. The Intergroup also includes a geographic dimension to its work through the inclusion of a "sea basin" dimension.
Few words from the MEPs
In May, the mandate of the eighth European Parliament is coming to an end.
For SEARICA this term has been very successful. Initiatives of the Intergroup strengthened the maritime dimension of EU legislation and its Members organised about 50 events organised in the past four years. However, a few weeks remain, and The SEARICA Intergroup is looking forward to welcoming you to its last series of conferencesand events in this term:
On February 26, we have an event on Sustainable Seaweeds Aquaculture to present balanced and long-term recommendations for current seaweed aquaculture practices within the PEGASUS project.
On March 6 The Intergroup organises an event together with DG MARE to discuss economic benefits of MPAs.
On March 7, Members of SEARICA will meet with the Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization.
On March 20, there will be a joint event by SEARICA and the H2020 funded projects ResponSEAble and MARINA to highlight the importance of Ocean Literacy.
Our final SEARICA conference will take place on April 9 during which we want to reflect on past maritime achievements and look at future challenges and their solutions.
Finally, we are also happy to announce that, on the initiative of SEARICA President Gesine Meissner, the European Parliament will hold a high-level conference on ‘OCEANS: The future of the Blue Planet’ on March 19, 2019 with the support of the SEARICA Intergroup.
We hope to see you soon!