The sea, a great opportunity for Europe’s economic growth

The blue economy –the one linked to the sea and its resources– constitutes a great opportunity for Europe’s development and economic growth. This became clear during the conference ‘Green Innovation-Blue Growth. Sustainable seas and oceans’ which Azti-Tecnalia organised within the framework of the Sinaval Eurofishing fair.
The event served to highlight some of the local initiatives that are being carried out within the blue economy, like offshore aquaculture, fishing as a viable, sustainable activity, seaside leisure, or the quest for new biological marine resources.

The conference focussed on the five strategic sectors that the European Commission has established to drive forward its Integrated Maritime Policy. These hubs are maritime tourism, the mining of mineral marine resources, aquaculture, marine bioprospecting and renewable marine energies. These strategic hubs constitute “an opportunity that could contribute towards overcoming the current crisis,” as Lorenzo Motos, Head of Azti-Tecnalia’s Marine Research Divission, pointed out. The expert spoke of the need to apply innovation and research in these sectors as a way of contributing towards developing it sustainably and profitably.

The activities relating to the sea offer a great potential for growth and currently employ 5.4 million people throughout the European Union, according to the European Commission’s data gathered in its report entitled: "Blue Growth: scenarios and drivers for sustainable growth from the oceans, seas and coasts". This supreme European body calculates that this figure could by 2020 rise to seven million people, while the gross added value contributed by the sectors relating to the sea could rise from the current 500,000 million euros to close to 600,000 million euros.

More details can be found at the following link: http://cordis.europa.eu/wire/index.cfm?fuseaction=article.Detail&rcn=35947