The 3rd European Maritime Day Stakeholder Conference was hosted by the city of Gijón, Asturias, on the Atlantic coast of Spain, from 18 to 21 May 2010. This was one of the events organised in the framework of the Spanish EU Presidency. The focus of the conference was the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the related Integrated Maritime Policy where the major objective is to achieve the good state of the marine environment of European seas by 2020. The ecosystem approach, marine spatial planning and definition of descriptors of the good environmental state are the main challenges along this road and these were also important topics of the event.
All these topics were also of interest to Mr. M. Prem, PAP/RAC Director a.i., who participated at various workshops and gave a presentation on the ICZM Protocol as a tool for maritime sustainable management within the Pegaso project session. The main message conveyed was one of the objectives of the ICZM Protocol, i.e. the integration of land and sea, and the need to take coastal zones into account when Maritime Policy is implemented.
Informally, Mr. Prem met with Mr. Janez Potocnik, EU Commissioner for the environment, and expressed his satisfaction with the fact that the Commission succeeded to forward the Commission's decision on the ratification of the ICZM Protocol to the EU Parliament. It is expected that the Protocol be ratified by the EU during July or September this year. Also, Mr. Potocnik was invited to participate to the regional Coast Day event that is going to be organised by PAP/RAC in collaboration with MAP Secretariat in Slovenia, on 25 September 2010.
