Text tabled : A7-0266/2010

  João Ferreira (GUE/NGL), in writing. − (PT) The report presents a general vision of an integrated maritime policy linked to the ‘objectives of the EU’s external policy’. We disagree with this approach as well as several other aspects of the report, such as its insistence on the creation of a ‘European Coastguard Service’, following a federalist stance that does not respect the sovereignty and powers of Member States with regard to the management of their territorial waters and Exclusive Economic Zones.

We reject the proposal to ‘introduce economic market based instruments’ such as emissions-trading schemes into the maritime sector: these mechanisms have already demonstrated their ineffectiveness at achieving the environmental goals that they claim to pursue, even without having been applied to the maritime sector.

However, we acknowledge the positive aspects that it includes, such as: the proposal that ‘improvements in working conditions at sea, to safety and the environmental performance of vessels’ should be placed on the agenda of international forums and in international agreements; the proposal to implement the ‘ILO Maritime Labour Convention in Community law’; the recognition given to maritime freight transport; the preservation of small and secondary ports; the expansion of the ‘short sea shipping network’; and the importance given to improving links with the outermost regions.

It also proposes making sea-related sciences a priority in the Eighth Framework Programme for Research.