WORKING GROUPS

The CPMR’s member Regions lobbied hard throughout the setting-up phase of an integrated EU maritime policy. After submitting to the Commission a report on Europe of the Sea (2005) and putting forward their contributions during the consultation phase that followed the publication of the Green Paper (2006 and 2007), the CPMR’s regions maintained their commitment in this area during the delivery phase of the Blue Book and its action plan. In this context, acting on a proposal from Brittany Region, the Aquamarina Group was created in the autumn of 2007, chaired by Jean-Yves Le Drian, President of Brittany Region. It has a membership of around forty regions covering all of Europe’s regional sea areas.

The working group has two aims:
- to enable the maritime Regions and the CPMR to react to the roll-out of the action plan;
- with regard to certain priority topics, to analyse the needs for changes to EU policies not taken into account in the Blue Book and Action Plan and allow the Regions and the CPMR to table proposals to the EU in these areas.

Priorities of the Aquamarina Group
The Blue Book addresses a large number of issues (over 30). The Regions have decided to maintain what they consider to be 10 topics of main concern ranked in 4 levels of priority:
- Priority ranking 1
▪ Governance of maritime policies
- Priority ranking 2
▪ Maritime clusters
▪ Fisheries
- Priority ranking 3
▪ Maritime spatial planning
▪ Sea ports
▪ Marine energy sources
▪ Quality of the marine environment
▪ Coastal and maritime tourism
▪ Funding of maritime policies
- Priority ranking 4
▪ Partnerships between businesses, politicians and researchers for marine sciences

How the Aquamarina Group works
- Plenary sessions, 3 to 4 times a year. Each meeting focuses on a major issue related to the European agenda. They allow both to share the information and prepare policy positions of the CPMR on this topic.
- Dedicated Sub-groups:
▪ on marine research and clusters, led by Schleswig-Holstein (Germany);
▪ on Data and Indicators led by Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (France)
▪ on maritime professions led by Mecklenburg Vorpommern (Germany)