Fifteen mid-career professionals, including scientists, researchers and experts working in the fields of oceanography and coastal management, participated in the third IOI-Malta Training Course entitled “Ocean Governance for the Mediterranean and Eastern European Countries – Towards a holistic maritime policy”.

This annual five-week intensive international course was held in Malta for the third year running from 12 November to 14 December with participants from a number of countries bordering the Mediterranean, Black, Baltic and Caspian Seas, namely Latvia, Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Turkey, Astrakhan, Montenegro, Georgia, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan and Malta.

These seas are all geographically enclosed or semi-enclosed and potentially subject to national maritime zones in their entirety. Their coastal states put their fragile ecosystems and biodiversity under individual and cumulative pressure and, as a result, the activities and maritime policies of one state are bound to affect the quality of the marine environment and use enjoyed by neighbouring states.

In this relationship, the EU maritime policy and the coherence of policies of neighbouring states with it are seen as a basis for regional cooperation, a main focus of this year’s course. Also, these seas have different levels of experience in regional environmental cooperation and maritime use and the diversity of experience provides an opportunity for comparative learning.

The course also included a two-day “Seminar on the Evolving EU Maritime Policy and the Proposed Action Plan – A vision for an integrated Maritime Policy for the EU and Neighbouring States”. The seminar, which was open to the public, reviewed the aims, objectives and underlying principles of the policy together with the EU Green Paper consultation process. It tackled the institutional mechanisms and sectoral responses necessary to achieve the policy, which ideally would not only tackle the European framework, but also point to a mechanism for greater coherence with neighbouring countries. The regional and international impacts of the evolving policy together with the implications of the policy for EU Small Island jurisdictions were also addressed.

The course was run by the IOI-Malta Operational Centre under the aegis of the International Ocean Institute and was accredited by the University of Malta. It was sponsored by the Lighthouse Foundation, the United Nations University/EHS, the International Maritime Organisation and the European Commission.

The IOI-Malta Operational Centre carries out research and provides services in physical oceanography. It aims to promote education and training in the sustainable use of ocean resources.

For more information on the activities of IOI-Malta, please refer to the centre’s website on www.capemalta.net