In June of 2007, Oceans’07 Aberdeen and EurOCEAN 2007, two of the world’s major marine and maritime conferences, are to join forces and come together for the very first time. This joint programme of events will be convened in Aberdeen, Scotland from 18-22 June 2007 at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre, the first occasion on which these meetings have been hosted in the UK. Commissioner Borg, who chairs the Steering Group of Commissioners for the Green Paper on an all embracing Maritime Policy for the European Union will be attending.
This event will bring the worldwide marine community of scientists, engineers, and technologists together with policy makers, managers and educators, in a framework of easy and informed discussion. The joining together of these two major conferences will ensure that Aberdeen in June 2007 will be the focus for the biggest ever gathering in Europe of the Marine Community.
The programmes for the two meetings complement and contrast with each other; the Oceans programme is traditionally the main focus for the marine science, engineering and technology community to discuss the latest marine challenges, trends and developments. It is run under the auspices of The Oceanic Engineering Society of IEEE in the US. In contrast EurOCEAN, hosted by the European Commission, will provide the science community with a forum on how marine and maritime science can contribute to maritime policy. The centre of debate will be the Green paper on a future EU Maritime Policy presented by the European Commission in June 2006 and its implications for marine and maritime science. EUROCEANS 2007 will follow in the footsteps of EUROCEANS 2004 in Ireland, which through the Galway declaration provided an impetus to the development of the Green Paper by the European Commission. As the period of public consultation on the Green paper ends on 30 June 2007, EUROCEANS 2007 provides an important opportunity to influence the future development of a holistic and all embracing maritime policy and its impact on science.
The theme of Oceans’07 Aberdeen, “Marine Challenges: Coastline to Deep Sea”, highlights the significant challenges; from the shallowest waters around our coasts to the deepest subsea trenches, which face marine and oceanic engineers in our drive to understand the complexities of the world’s oceans and our ability to utilise, explore and preserve this unique environment.
The theme of EurOCEAN 2007 will be a consultation, discussion, and analysis of the European Commission’s recently published Green Paper on a Maritime Policy for the European Union, which was published on 7 June 2006. This launched a consultation process that will last until the end of June 2007. On Friday 22nd of June 2007, the marine community will have the opportunity to contribute to this process by providing science policy input to the European Commission in relation to this Green Paper. This policy is aimed at creating jobs and optimising the economic value of all maritime sectors in a socially and environmentally sustainable way. How can science contribute to these policy issues is one of the key issues to be addressed.
Aberdeen has a long and distinguished pedigree in maritime affairs stretching back a thousand years through exploration, shipbuilding, fishing, and science and engineering to its position now as the “oil and gas capital of Europe”. It is fitting that Aberdeen is the first UK city to be chosen to host both Oceans and EurOCEAN and the first to host the joint event.
Professor John Watson, of the University of Aberdeen and Chair of Oceans’07 said, “The fact that these two meetings should come together is testament to the global interest and importance of marine and maritime affairs, and their impact on all our lives”.
Mr John Richardson, Head of the Maritime Policy Task Force of the European Commission said, “The importance of having activists and policy makers from all over the world coming together to discuss the direction of a future European maritime policy for our oceans cannot be overstated. It provides a forum for common discussion and debate that will hopefully lead to a consensus opinion from the marine RTD community on their vision for a future European maritime policy.”
Both Oceans’07 Aberdeen and EurOCEAN 2007 invite the world’s marine policy makers, ocean scientists, subsea engineers, and technologists to come to Aberdeen, Scotland from 18-22 June 2007 to discuss the challenges and policy for the future of the marine environment.
