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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. 2 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. 3 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. 4 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. 5 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. 6