Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly

2. The Assembly draws attention to the proposals in the “Blue Book” issued in 2007 under the title "An integrated maritime policy for the European Union", which call for Europe to take steps as quickly as possible to agree policies and actions geared towards a common vision of the role of the oceans for the future of humankind.

3. The Assembly also refers to the principles set out in the EurOcean intergovernmental project for co-ordinating maritime scientific and technological information.

4. It also believes that the Council of Europe is the most appropriate institution for promoting a new vision of the oceans through a new legal and institutional framework aimed at establishing a new type of governance of the oceans.

5. In view of the increase in maritime insecurity and in illegal immigration, human trafficking and piracy, the Assembly underlines the need to take measures to guarantee the social rights of seafarers as set out in the European Social Charter and to establish standards for maritime security and pollution.

6. In the more specific case of the North Atlantic, there have been rapid changes in the nature of the pollution it suffers. In particular, its waters have been affected by land-based pollution, shipping, over-exploitation of resources and oil production.

7. The Assembly observes that new regions, such as the Arctic and Greenland, are being intensively exploited, and that this can have harmful consequences for the environment and climate change in general.

8. The Assembly therefore calls on the Committee of Ministers to:

8.1. instruct a committee of experts to define a legal and institutional framework for new ocean governance;

8.2. invite the Parliamentary Assembly to take part in the work of the committee of experts.

9. The Assembly also recommends that the Committee of Ministers call on governments of member states to:

9.1. take part in the EurOcean intergovernmental project;

9.2. promote the establishment and proper management of marine protected areas.

10. The Assembly also calls on the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities to:

10.1. analyse and encourage cases of good practice in sharing information and governance of the seas and oceans at a regional level;

10.2. develop awareness-raising programmes that deal with defending and conserving the oceans and their potential;

10.3. adopt policies for coastline management, sewage treatment, supervision of economic activity and water-basin preservation.

¹Assembly debate on 2 October 2009 (35^th Sitting) (see Doc.12005, report of the Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs, rapporteur: Mrs de Melo). Text adopted by the Assembly on 2 October 2009 (35^th Sitting).