- common fisheries policy | sustainable fisheries | fisheries policy
- Tuesday 29 September 2015, 00:00 (CEST)
Practical information
- When
- Tuesday 29 September 2015, 00:00 (CEST)
- Languages
- English
Description
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:
- 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.
- 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
- 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
- We need to understand the story behind the numbers – for instance the reason why tourists visit the sea: sun, angling, culture?
- Some of the benefits of the sea are unquantifiable in purely monetary terms
- 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
09.00 | welcome and introduction | DG-MARE |
09.30 | estimates of size of blue economy non-paper (slightly updated 27 September 2015) tables of turnover, employment and average wages in blue economy in EU Member States | DG-MARE |
10.30 | geographical perspective | Eurostat |
11.00 | coffee | |
11.30 | other estimates Ireland Bio economy input-output model Portugal | Member States |
12.20 | call for tenders MARE/2014/45 (study on the establishment of a Framework for processing and analysing maritime economic data in Europe | MARE |
12.30 | next steps | |
13.00 | close |
Questions for participants
Participants
Austria | Claudia Koreimann-Özkan, Permanent Representation in Brussels |
Finland | Janne Peltola, Enterprise and Innovation Department, Ministry of Employment and the Economy |
France | Claude Wohrer, Secretariat general for the Sea |
Ireland | Marcella Smyth, Maritime Affairs Attaché Permanent Representation of Ireland to the EU, Stephen Hynes, National University of Ireland Galway, Richard Cronin, Department of the Environment |
Italy | Maria Cristina Zuchi, Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, Carlo Lombardi, Federazione del Mare Italian Maritime Cluster |
Latvia | Ansis Zeltins, Maritime Association of Latvia |
Luxembourg | Paul Marceul, Alain Hoffman, Commissariat aux Affaires Maritimes |
Malta | Emma La Perla, permanent representation of Malta to the EU, Franco Schembri, Ministry for the Economy, Investment and Small Business, Sean Buttigieg, Ministry for Finance |
Netherlands | Lodewijk Abspoel, Ministry for Infrastructure and the Environment, DG Spatial development and Water affairs |
Norway | Lars Erik Nordgaard, Counsellor for Industrial Affairs |
Poland | Iwona Chrząstowska, Department of Maritime Transport and Shipping Safety, Ministry of Infrastructure and Development |
Portugal | Conceição Santos, Directorate General for Maritime Policy |
Romania | Nicole Mot, Permanent Representation Of Romania to the European Union |
Spain | Encarna Rodriguez, counsellor in the Reper in Brussels |
United Kingdom | Marilena Pollicino, Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs |
EU | Maria Luisa Ienaccao, administrator in the committee on fisheries of the European Parliament, Matthew King, Miguel Pena, Iain Shepherd, Haitze Siemers, Kristel Jurado, Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Valeriya Angelova-Tosheva, Eurostat, Charlotte Jagot, European Agency for Small and Medium Enterprises |
Details for reimbursement of expenses (one per Member State)
to be filled in and returned prior to the meeting
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