24th meeting of the Member States expert group on Integrated maritime Policy

This meeting took place on 13 October 2016,

MINUTESMinutes of the meeting

AGENDA

• Ocean governance:

  • Update on the Ocean Governance initiative

  • High-Level UN Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 ((External speaker Tomas Brolin, Ida Björklund)

Presentation SDG 14

• Our Ocean conference 2017 hosted by the European Union
  http://ourocean2016.org/

• Development of an International Legally Binding Instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction

The second session of the Preparatory Committee established by the UN General Assembly in 2015 to make recommendations on the elements of a draft text of an international legally binding instrument under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction will take place from 26 August – 9 September 2016 at UN Headquarters in New York.

Draft WP .pdf
Agenda .pdf

• Sea basins:

  • Study on realising the potential of outmost regions
    Study-Outermost-Regions-Blue-Growth-Info-Doc.doc
    Endorsement letter to action 2015 1.3.1.5.pdf

  • The Union for the Mediterranean – latest developments

  • North Seas Countries agreement on closer energy cooperation – Work programme (External speaker Lodewijk Abspoel )

• Priorities of the Presidency of the Council -Slovakia and Malta (External speaker David Kerr)

• Ocean Energy roadmap

• Blue economy:

  • Blue Economy Summit Hamburg
    The first summit of the Blue Economy Business and Science Forum will take place in Hamburg on 12-13 September 2016.

  • Blueprint for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills – Maritime Technology

    https://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/mare/itemlongdetail.cfm?item_id=32080&subweb=342&lang=en

• Coastguard cooperation: outcomes of the European Coastguard Functions Forum (ECGFF) on 21-22 September in London

• Reform of the STCW-F convention

The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watch-keeping for Fishing Vessel Personnel (STCW-F), adopted in 1995 under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), lays down minimum training standards for personnel on board fishing vessels for crews of seagoing fishing vessels of 24 metres in length and above. The STCW-F Convention entered into force in 2012, only ratified by five EU Member States so far (Denmark, Spain, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland). The EU cannot ratify this Convention as only individual States can accede to it. Given that a number of its provisions fall under exclusive EU competence, the Council, following a proposal by the Commission, adopted a Decision[1] authorising Member States to become party to the Convention. In the meantime, discussions have kicked-off at IMO for a review of this Convention in order to update its provisions.

• AOB

  • Update on the implementation of the IMP Work Programmes

  • Changes to Work Programme 2016

  • Procedure adoption Work Programme 2017

[1] Council Decision 2015/799 authorising Member States to become party to the Convention was adopted on May18th, 2015.