Ana Gomes MEP, Strasbourg/Brussels

Crucial for the EU and Member States for effective coordination European Maritime Security Strategy (EMSS)

by Ana Gomes MEP, Member of the SEDE Subcommittee and Substitute in the LIBE Committee, Strasbourg/Brussels

The European Union is to adopt, most likely in December, the first European Maritime Security Strategy (EMSS). The EMSS will seek to integrate the assets, capabilities and instruments that already exist in the maritime security and maritime safety fields in order to effectively implement a security strategy on the sea, in the European neighbourhood and elsewhere. As agents for peace and security globally, the Union and its Member States cannot ignore the risks, threats and opportunities that the seas and oceans entail and they cannot continue to waste resources and capabilities by failing to work together.

Enable effective coordination In a report of the European Parliament (EP) Subcommittee on Security and Defence on “The Maritime Dimension of the Common Security and Defence Policy” recently adopted by the Foreign Affairs Committee, I seek to outline the problems that currently hinder the ability of the EU and its Member States to deal with maritime security/safety challenges. There is an urgent need for effective coordination between Member States and the EU, and most notably, its specialised agencies. And it is urgent to put into practice the “pool and share” injunction that the financial/economic/budgetary crisis has made even more pressing with respect to European security and defence assets and capabilities in general, which obviously include those needed to face challenges at sea.

The EU’s naval and maritime assets and capabilities are currently concentrated in certain Member States and are also scattered throughout a multiplicity of instruments and EU bodies, leading in practice to lower leverage, poorer implementation and diminished cost efficiency at European level. In times of economic and financial strife in Europe this is a cost burden that simply should not be tolerated - it is time for effectiveness, comprehensiveness and coordination. Europe needs to get its act together in order to enhance the security of citizens at home and in far away places, and to protect the freedoms of navigation and access that are essential for pursuing its economic interests and way of life. And Europe must go beyond a merely defensive endeavour: it needs to pro-actively sustain the vast and diverse resources (biological, mineral, economic, scientific, etc.) that can be drawn from the sea and may become a source of development and wealth for mankind.

A consistent EMSS must call for and deliver on pooling and sharing. And it must be soundly anchored in multifaceted synergies linking the safety and security dimensions, because the threats to European security and interests are also multifaceted and demand a comprehensive approach. These threats stem, on the one hand, directly from purely security-related problems, such as terrorism, organised crime (involving the trafficking of human beings, arms and drugs) and piracy, which de facto impacts on the safety and freedom of navigation, and, on the other hand, from environmental factors and human action with respect to the environment, such as pollution, spilling disasters, over-exploitation of and competition for resources, etc.

ATALANTA – successful but limited Operation Atalanta off the coasts of Somalia in the Indian Ocean is the first naval mission to be conducted under the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and clearly illustrates the integrated and comprehensive approach required to deal with what initially seemed to be a mere maritime challenge: it was launched to fight acts of piracy against merchant shipping and to secure WFP deliveries to the people of Somalia. It was soon realised how much the overfishing and waste dumping by foreign fleets made possible by the lawlessness in Somali waters and territory had encouraged local communities to engage in piracy, the proceeds of which also feed terrorist activity in the region. Security and judicial arrangements with neighbouring countries were soon also needed in order to ensure that captured pirates would be tried

Ana Gomes MEP Member of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs and Human Rights, the Subcommittee Security & Defence, and a Subs - titute for the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. Ms Gomes was born in 1954 in Lisbon. In 1979 she graduated in Law from the University of Lisbon where she also received a diploma in Community Law (INA) in 1981, as well as a diploma from the ‘Institut International des Droits de l’Homme’ (Strasbourg) in 1989. From 1982–86 she was diplomatic adviser to the Portuguese President before being posted to the Permanent Mission to the UN and International Organisations in Geneva (1986–1989) and to the Embassies in Tokyo (1989–1991) and London (1991–1994). In 1995 she became Head of Office of the Secretary for European Affairs (1995 – 1996) before becoming Member of Portugal’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York in 1997–1998. From 1999-2003 she was Ambassador of Portugal to Jakarta.

12 and jailed. It did not take much time to prove the limits of the operation, despite coordination with NATO and other countries’ naval projection forces in the Indian Ocean; no matter how effective the policing of the seas, without investment on shore, in the rebuilding of a state order in Somalia, piracy could be somewhat contained, but not eliminated. An EMSS will enable the EU to put down on paper how Member States - which today hold the main responsibility over their territorial waters and their Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) –will coordinate among themselves and with European institutions, so as to make more effective use of the means and capabilities available and, together, build those still missing.

Glaring gaps exist, nowadays. Take, for instance, EMSA, the European Maritime Safety Agency, headquartered in Lisbon – I found out that it has been supplying valuable information to the “Atalanta” mission, but that it does so only on a purely informal basis, since as a civilian agency it does not have a mandate to cooperate with a military mission! An EMSS must sort out these inconsistencies of EU policy and enable Member States and EU institutions to actually foster the synergy between civilian or military means and the expertise of all relevant agencies in the field of maritime security and safety, such as EMSA, the European Defence Agency, the EU Satellite Centre, the Galileo Programme, the European Space Agency and Frontex, among others.

EMSS will lend to operability in the CSDP The implementation of the Common Security and Defence Policy depends partly on an effective EMSS - there are not many doubts about this in the EP, the European External Action Service or the European Commission. If founded on the principles of international and European law, and assuming that the Member States do not run away from their common responsibilities, the EMSS will lend operability to the CSDP in maritime terms. But, indeed, this effort will depend on how committed national governments are to working in common to direct their defence spending towards this European endeavour, in a true European way. The financial crisis, leading to defence cuts in almost all Member States, could have been an opportunity to further the smart defence and the pooling and sharing initiatives; but the sad truth is that, so far, not much is to be seen.

Yet, the reality is that, in one way or another, most Member States today are engaged in port and maritime security, either in territorial waters (preventing human or drugs trafficking in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, for instance) or they are engaged in naval operations off the western or eastern coasts of Africa - fighting piracy in the Gulf of Aden and fighting organised crime and terrorism in the Gulf of Guinea, where piracy is just starting to occur. Furthermore, the enlargement of the Panama Canal, due to be completed next year and

Documentation

Study requested by the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Security and Defence (2013). “The maritime dimension of CSDP: Geostrategic maritime challenges and their implications for the European Union”

(Excerpt) “In order to defend its maritime interests within the more globally connected and hostile international maritime context, EU member states will need to provide naval capabilities that are able to take on an increasingly broad catalogue of tasks. These will range from protection of the seas, through monitoring and safety operations, to securing the seas, through counter-piracy or antiimmigration operations, as well as the ability to project power on land and to potentially far-away region. This requires modern, multipurpose platforms that are able to stay at sea for extended periods of time and are interoperable with each other and potential third parties. In the face of declining defence budgets, the only way of providing these capabilities and maintaining a credible deterrent is through greater pooling and sharing amongst EU member states. Moreover, the potential of acquiring certain “common use” assets, such as drones, surveillance satellites or hospital and anti-pollution ships, should be taken seriously in the long run. Measures to incentivize a further integration of the European naval shipbuilding industry also need to be considered further.” > The study is available at: http://tinyurl.com/krlackz

Source: European Parliament

meant to facilitate shipping between the Atlantic and the Pacific, is bound to increase both trade and economic opportunities, but also the safety and security challenges directly and indirectly facing Europe. The same can be said about the environmental changes occurring in the Arctic Ocean, that are already fuelling a scramble to assert national claims in the region.

The EMSS is a must for the CSDP Remarkably, an EMSS it is not only about safety and security: facing the challenges, seizing the momentum and the opportunities on the seas will also mean business and economic gains for Europe. And finding new sources of development and competitiveness is particularly important for those Atlantic and Mediterranean Member States currently enduring crippling austerity, like my own country, Portugal.

An EMSS is a must in order for Europe to ensure its safety and security and protect its immediate and long-term interests, either in its territorial waters, in its neighbourhood or in far away oceans. The EU cannot be a global actor and provider of security without organising its means, capabilities and goals in the framework of a proper EMSS.