Member States' Expert Group ad-hoc meeting on measuring the blue economy

Background

The meeting follows a presentation in the 21st Meeting of the Member States Expert Group on Maritime Policy.

Time and Place

9.00-1300, Tuesday, 29 September,

Brussels, Rue Joseph II, 79, Room 1/01 (opposite the cafeteria)

Summary

MARE analysis

MARE invited comments on its analysis of the size, nature and dynamics of the EU's blue economy. The main points raised were:

1) Market economy.

MARE had analysed only the market economy because this is where the Commission aims to promote growth and because this is the part of the economy covered by structural business statistics. This is consistent with the United States and Chinese approaches for the "ocean economy". Employment in education or research paid by companies is currently included but not that paid by individuals or the government.

Some participants considered that education and research, naval and coastguard activity contribute to the blue economy and should be taken account of.

2) Extraterritorial activity

MARE said that activity outside the EU territory had not been included because this does not count towards Gross Domestic Product and is not included in structural business statistics. Although this may not change significantly the estimate of the number of people employed, activities such as offshore petroleum exploration by EU companies can certainly have an impact on the financial health of those companies. MARE agreed that more information on them would certainly be useful.

Clearly shipping also has an extraterritorial dimension. Ships may not touch Europe and may employ non-European seafarers but contribute to the value of European companies. MARE did not know how this is taken account of in Eurostat's structural business statistics but will find out.

3) Coastal tourism

MARE had used the definition of "coastal" based on nights spent in municipalities at or near the coast as defined in Regulation 692/2011. Transport to and from the coast is included. Work is ongoing to include day trips and Member States have been asked if they can distinguish between "urban" and "rural" in the information they provide to Eurostat.

Some participants thought that this might not be the most appropriate definition. Barcelona and Venice are clearly maritime cities but their proximity to the sea may not be the main attraction for tourists.

Because tourism occupies such a large part of the EU's blue economy, at least in employment terms, some participants considered that it ought to be considered separately .Furthermore, more details are needed on specific subsectors – sea-angling, kite surfing, etc. Some of this information can be obtained from the study used to prepare the Commission Communication on coastal tourism COM(2014)86 but more needs to be done.

4) Smaller or Emerging Activities

Activities such as deep-sea mining or marine biotechnology are fundamental components of the EU's blue growth initiative. Whilst at present their contribution in terms of employment is not going to affect the overall size of the blue economy, MARE still aims to track their development

5) Ecosystem Services

Within the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Member States are working to determine the cost and benefits of measures to improve the state of the marine environment but not to assess the value of natural capital and its contribution to employment. Some efforts to do this are being undertaken under the auspices of the Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystem Services (MAES).

6) Checking with industry

It was suggested that MARE check their figures with industry sources. This has already been done with the International Oil and Gas Producers and work is underway with the shipping, shipbuilding industries and maritime clusters.

7) Calculating Gross Value Added

Estimating the contribution to Gross Domestic product by adding up the value added of each sector risks missing the many upstream activities such as marine equipment suppliers. Using turnover (minus imports) risks double counting. MARE is examining both methods and will report back.

8) Inland activities

Inland waterways and freshwater aquaculture make up about 15% of the number of people employed in the maritime transport and aquaculture activities. Including them makes analysis easier because some higher level NACE activity codes do not distinguish between them.

Eurostat analysis

MARE's effort had focused on employment in activities at a national scale whereas Eurostat had examined other maritime indicators as well as demographic, social and economic aspects of coastal NUTS3 regions. Points raised were:

1. The data on Irish coastal tourism or value added by Dutch shipbuilding had not been included because these data had not yet been provided by the countries concerned.
2. Approximately twice as much freight (by volume) is transported into the EU by ship as leaves.

We also need to estimate the contribution of maritime industries such as marine equipment to the EU's trade balance

Portugal

Portugal is setting up a strategic monitoring of its national plan. So far the analysis covers employment, production and value added for maritime activities from national accounts (i.e. including partially maritime activities such as "service activities incidental to water transportation"). Calculations for the size of the ocean economy are being improved by the development of a Satellite Account for the Sea (SAS) within the National Accounts, a pilot project between Directorate-General for Maritime Policy (DGPM) and Statistics Portugal (INE). SAS will include the direct contribution of all maritime activities defined, but it will not include indirect activities, which might be calculated in the future using input output analysis. For the medium-short term analysis Portugal is using other macroeconomic indicators, such as the turnover from business statistics, mainly for fully maritime activities (SEAMInd project). Other indicators such as port traffic are being developed. The results will be monitored regularly and feed into instruments such as the National Ocean Strategy 2013-2020, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the Maritime Spatial Planning.

Ireland

The Irish analysis follows the MARE approach in that they are beginning to take account of indirect activities – the supply of goods and services to the primary sectors. Most of this indirect employment is in the services sector. But the Irish estimate of travel and service activities is calculated differently and they have made a special effort to define, survey, quantify and track emerging or high technology sectors such as "high technology marine products and services" or "marine biotechnology and bioproducts":

MARE thought it highly unlikely that additional surveys at an EU level would be supported. We have to use existing data.

Study

A study on economic data financed by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund is currently being evaluated. It should provide additional detail on marine activities that are not available from Eurostat – for instance the split in shipbuilding between civil and military.

Remarks

1. MARE has defined the blue economy, as have other major trading partners, as the market economy. We also need to look at non-market activities that support the blue economy
2. We need to understand the story behind the numbers – for instance the reason why tourists visit the sea: sun, angling, culture?
3. Some of the benefits of the sea are unquantifiable in purely monetary terms
4. Member States need to understand how much effort they need to put into this exercise and what the and goal is

Next Steps.

The ad-hoc group was asked to provide written answers to questions from MARE by 14 October. The questions are here.

Agenda

Questions for participants

survey and replies

Participants

Details for reimbursement of expenses (one per Member State)

rules for reimbursement

privacy statement

to be filled in and returned prior to the meeting

form for security services

to be filled in and handed over at the meeting

application for reimbursement

identification form Participants who have already delivered this form fully completed at an earlier meeting are only required to fill in the fields 1 (Expert) and 4 (Bank).

If, for exceptional reasons, they cannot be provided on the day of the meeting, they may be tramnsmitted by letter, fax or e-mail postmarked or dated no later than 30 calendar days after the meeting. Please bear in mind that we must receive the originals of the documents.