Download A European Marine Research Strategy for the European

SPEECH/07/413.
Joe Borg
Member of the European Commission
Responsible for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs
A European Marine Research Strategy
for the European Maritime Policy
Opening address at EurOCEAN 2007 Conference
Aberdeen, 22 June 2007
Dear Mr Horn,
Dear co-Chairmen of the EurOcean 2007 conference.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is now more than two years ago that the European Commission, setting out its
strategic objectives for 2005 to 2009, called for an all-embracing EU maritime policy,
supported by excellence in marine scientific research and technology. Even before
we launched the consultations on the future EU maritime policy, it was obvious to us
that only excellence in marine research and technology would allow us to deliver the
goal of a thriving maritime economy and the realisation of the full potential of seabased activities in an environmentally sustainable manner. Needless to say, after an
intense year of consultation following the launch of the Green Paper last June, we
are more convinced than ever that marine science and technology must be the
foundations on which a future EU maritime policy is built. Our expectations are high;
so are the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead of us.
I will focus today on the global challenges we face, the huge opportunities that we
could realise by addressing these challenges with the support of strong European
marine science and technology, and what we need to do to make this happen.
The challenges before us are clear. Sea related human activities and climate
change are combining to pose severe threats to marine ecosystems.
These ecosystems and the marine environment have been significantly affected by
land and sea based human activities over the last decades. Maritime transport,
coastal tourism, fisheries, aquaculture, seabed exploitation, and sea based
renewable and conventional energy have all made an immense contribution to our
wealth and welfare. But they have also had a growing impact on seas and oceans,
to the point that the very balance of the oceanic system is being seriously affected,
endangering the source of this crucial contribution to our wealth and welfare.
We must also deal with the cumulative impact of our activities on the oceans and
seas, which is more than the sum of the impacts of different activities taken
separately. This challenges the current governance framework of maritime affairs,
which has tended to look at maritime activities separately.
Climate change is another and even bigger challenge relating to the oceans. The
oceans are a fundamental component of the European and global climate systems changes in ocean currents and dynamics are indeed an indicator of global climate
change. Average temperature of the global ocean has increased to depths of at
least 3000m affecting the distribution patterns and abundance of species from
plankton to top predators. This may result in major changes in ecosystem functions,
species' ecological interactions and geographical ranges.
Almost 50% of European population lives within 50km of the coast, with many
heavily populated areas located at elevations of less than 5 metres. Sea-level rise
would threaten these settlements, change the shape of coastlines through coastal
erosion, and lead to flooding and underground salt water intrusion. The flood
defence measures built to mitigate these dangers are not only expensive but can
also in themselves threaten ecosystems.
These two major challenges require complex responses of paramount political
importance. We need to ensure that the decisions we make today are the best
possible to secure the wealth and welfare of future generations.
We strongly believe that science and technology hold the key and can allow us to
reconcile the economic growth generated by sea-based activities with environmental
sustainability.
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If we want to pursue the sustainable development of sea-based activities, we need
to develop a sophisticated understanding of the interaction between different human
activities and natural ecosystems, as well as of their combined effects. We need to
find ways to develop all these sea-based activities without provoking irreversible
ecosystem impacts. Cross-sectoral science and better coordinated research efforts
across member states are not only indispensable to the continuation of existing
marine and maritime activities, they can also help us realise huge untapped
potential from the sea in a sustainable manner.
Indeed oceans represent the last under-explored domain on Earth, and they offer us
a huge unexploited potential in areas like aquaculture, blue biotechnology,
renewable energy resources, non renewable fuels and mineral resources. We know
for instance that much of the deep sea is relatively unproductive compared to
certain areas such as undersea ridges. Areas around hydrothermal vents that form
along these ridges are biologically productive and large populations of organisms
supported by the vents form the basis of complex food chains. Yet we still know little
about how these organisms are dispersed, assemble, and form new communities.
The biological and natural processes that allow such rich biodiversity to flourish so
unexpectedly under these conditions are still little understood, yet such knowledge
could be extremely valuable. Filling this knowledge gap requires concerted
multidisciplinary study of these very complex environments involving a large
spectrum of natural and physical sciences. Better linking of science to end-users
can considerably enhance the industrial outcome of biotechnology for application in
areas like food, health, energy and industrial materials. Indeed biotechnology
analysts predict that more than 50% of all future industrial production will have
biotechnology as a production component, implying a strong market pull factor. We
can and we must tackle the challenge of turning such opportunities into successes.
Tackling the challenges posed by climate change is also a source of considerable
opportunities. It is first of all an opportunity to help society predict and deal with the
effects of climate change on human activities, particularly in coastal areas. Not only
can marine science help better understand the mechanisms of climate change but it
can also help mitigate its effects, thanks, for example, to the development of
renewable energy from the sea.
The EU is an international leader in climate research using advanced mapping
techniques to project possible scenarios and impacts for Europe's regions. We need
to build on this knowledge, to analyse the consequences, and even more
importantly, to link them to the development of new solutions. Adaptation is an
unavoidable complement to mitigation action. After all, a certain degree of climate
change will be inevitable, even if global mitigation efforts over the coming decades
prove successful.
- Can science provide industry and the service sector effective early warning
signals to allow adjustment to the changing circumstances?
- What will the impact of climate change be on ecosystems, existing or new
fisheries, species distribution, or aquaculture opportunities?
By cooperating with industry, and by creating and sharing knowledge on climate
change, the scientific community can help turn science into technology and bring
eco-friendly business concepts to the global market. In the challenge of
understanding, predicting, mitigating and adapting to climate change lies an
opportunity for the development of valuable new economic activities.
It is a rich opportunity for scientists when the need to invest in science is so clearly
identified, but it is also a weighty responsibility on both policy makers and the
scientific community to produce the necessary results.
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The Green paper on a future EU Maritime Policy addressed the need for an
overarching European Marine Related Research Strategy to further deepen our
knowledge and promote new technologies. The contributions to the consultation
from important stakeholders have confirmed the need for a strategy to identify and
plan for the tasks ahead, so that further actions can be undertaken in a coherent
policy framework. There has been support by key stakeholders to key topics we
have addressed in the Green paper and in particular:
- The need for cross-thematic integration of marine and maritime research;
- The need for strengthened cooperation and synergy between member states'
research efforts;
- The importance of a detailed identification of marine research infrastructure
needs and in particular a closer integration of marine data;
- More integrated cooperation and networking in the scientific community to
provide a better articulation between research, policy-making, industry and
society in general.
Let me comment briefly on these four items.
The need to work across traditional themes in the Seventh Research Framework
Programme (FP 7) mirrors the need to work across sectors in the maritime policy.
The scientific Community needs to identify the strategic cross-sectoral challenges,
and the European Community should provide the tools to address them concretely.
We believe that added value can be created in approaching these challenges
through cooperation at European level. We can in particular stimulate funding, within
shared cost schemes, of large-scale catalyzing initiatives required for a better
management and protection of the seas resources. We also have tools such as joint
calls for proposals in FP 7. I would finally like to stress the particular importance of
fostering cooperation between marine and maritime research and technology. We
have much to gain from strengthened cooperation between these two areas and I
welcome the participation in this conference of representatives of the Waterborne
technological platform.
But this in itself is not enough. To succeed we need commitment from all our
member states. The Community funding of science is only a small fraction of the
research effort undertaken by member states. We need to promote synergy
between member states research efforts and boost value added at Community level
to everybody's benefit. The European Research Area Networks (ERA-Nets) and
their upgraded version in FP 7 (ERA-Net plus) are tools which can deliver this
improved synergy. It is up to Member states and to the marine and maritime
scientific community to identify areas where further cooperation can generate added
value.
Infrastructure is an enabling factor for research and technology. In the case of
marine and maritime science, it can take the form of physical, large-scale
infrastructure, such as oceanic research vessels or it can take the form of marine
and genomic data collection networks. The work done by the European Strategy
Forum on Research Infrastructures provides a basis for the identification of needs in
the area of marine and maritime research, which you might wish to refine and
complete.
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I would like to stress in particular the importance of collecting a long time series of
well-validated data on the seas, to assess and forecast evolutions and to develop
baselines for sustainable use of the sea. A number of initiatives have been set-up at
a European level to provide such data. But many of these initiatives are
experimental, of short duration, or limited to a single scientific discipline like
fisheries, ecology, oceanography or meteorology. We need to have a close look at
these initiatives with two objectives in mind. The first should be to maximise
efficiency of data collection by avoiding the duplication and waste of resources
created by many scientists searching for the same data. The second objective
should be to develop a proper cross-sectoral data strategy reflecting the growing
understanding of inter-related and connected phenomena.
In the Green Paper, the Commission undertook to consider setting up the European
Marine Observation and Data Network in order precisely to pursue these objectives.
We believe that data is a public good and that improved access to raw data would
allow market forces to generate a wider range of responses and applications than
might have been imagined beforehand. We further proposed a European Atlas of
the Seas to showcase the data, raise public awareness and indicate our present
state of knowledge.
Feedback on our ideas has been positive. Suggestions have been made regarding
the legal framework for and the financing of marine data collection and distribution
schemes, and we shall consider them carefully. Likewise the EU Atlas of the Seas
was welcomed as a potential flagship project to highlight European technology – for
instance in seabed surveying – as well as providing a valuable tool for policy
planning and research. We would welcome more detailed suggestions from your
side on this project.
Let me finally comment on the fourth and last item I listed earlier, which I could call
science and research governance. It has several dimensions. I will focus on two.
Firstly, we believe that we would all gain if the marine and maritime scientific
community could find ways to offer a coherent interface to policy makers and society
at large. There are various means to reach such a result and it is up to you to decide
which one is most effective and adapted to reality. For maximum effect, the scientific
community should speak with one voice, as representative as possible, to send
clear and loud messages to policy makers and society on matters of crucial political
importance relating to the seas and oceans.
The second dimension concerns the interface between science and industry. We all
know that Europe produces almost one third of the world’s scientific knowledge but
that it is less successful in converting science into commercial technologies and
socio-economic innovation. We need to integrate science and technology to the
benefit of both. Marine environmental technology in particular offers huge
opportunities both to industry and to the scientific community. The technological
platforms have proved to be an important tool to promote integration between
science and industry. The Waterborne Technological Platform is an example to be
followed in other domains. I welcome in particular the initiative taken by the
aquaculture industry and scientific community to try and set up a European
Aquaculture Technological Platform. If conditions are met for its launching, it would
represent a considerable step forward for the European aquaculture industry.
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Allow me to conclude. The European Union has played a major role in supporting
marine and maritime research in the past 20 years. We and the marine scientific
community have made considerable progress in developing a marine European
Research Area. The marine scientific community looks more competitive and better
organized in delivering knowledge to stakeholders and policy makers. Yet, in the
wake of the launch of the EU maritime policy, we need to make a qualitative step
forward in strengthening the EU marine research area and linking it to the maritime
research and technology community. A strong EU strategy for marine research will
give us the basis to take this step and deliver the science and research foundation
for the future EU maritime policy. This is what we need and your contribution is
essential. Let's not miss this opportunity.
Thank you.
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