Atlantic Conference "The Marine Economy a key component of the EU integrated strategy for the Atlantic Area"
Grand Hotel, Malahide, Dublin, 7 February 2012
The Irish Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Simon Coveney, TD, addressed the conference on the importance of the Atlantic Ocean for the future of the Irish economy. He welcomed the EU’s proposed Atlantic Strategy and stated that Ireland would be at the heart of this new strategy. The Conference entitled ‘The Marine Economy: A key component of the EU Integrated Strategy for the Atlantic Area was hosted by the Border, Midland and Western (BMW) Regional Assembly, as part of the 2011 presidency of the Atlantic Area Programme, gathered 170 delegates from across the Atlantic Area from public and private organisations, local and regional authorities, universities and research institutions. All speakers emphasised the enormous potential of the Atlantic Ocean and stressed the Strategy was an opportunity to promote a sustainable growth in Ireland and the Atlantic Area that would also benefit other parts of the EU. The Atlantic Area programme which currently supports 39 projects in the maritime and marine priority areas of the strategy can boast high quality and balanced partnerships which could help building up the strategy. The programme was presented as a vehicle for the strategy, which would allow implementing joint actions under the Strategy. Finally five projects funded under the programme were presented to show how effective transnational cooperation can be to support the maritime sector.
Conference presentations
Projects with Maritime dimension
Maritime Strategy for the Atlantic Ocean Area
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Atlantic Area Programme
The Atlantic Area Programme is a transnational cooperation programme in the framework of the "European Territorial Cooperation" objective, which is one of the instruments of EU cohesion policy for the programming period 2007-2013. It is financed by the European Commission through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), with a total budget of 158 million (see funding figures).
The Atlantic Area covers the entire territory of Ireland and the Atlantic regions of Spain, France, Portugal and the United Kingdom (see map).
Its overall strategic objective is to achieve significant and tangible progress in transnational cooperation geared towards cohesive, sustainable and balanced territorial development of the Atlantic Area and its maritime heritage.
The programme strategy is implemented through four strategic priorities: transnational networks of entrepreneurship and innovation; protection and enhancement of marine and coastal environment; accessibility and internal links, urban and regional sustainable development.
