News item | 21-11-2023 | 3:00 PM
Today, countries surrounding the North Sea have agreed to jointly use and protect this sea more efficiently. Until now, the countries have mainly collaborated within their own sectors at an international level. Consider, for example, the energy, fishing and nature sectors.
Minister Mark Harbers (Infrastructure and Water Management): “One of the major challenges in the North Sea is space. Every country wants to ensure that there is room for ships, but also that there is sustainable energy, sufficient space for food extraction from the sea through sustainable fishing, and that the sea is a healthy habitat for birds, fish and mammals. I see that we can all tackle these challenges much more efficiently, for example by ensuring that we do not build a wind farm on our border if Germany is planning a shipping route on their side. Today’s agreements are a first step towards making much better use of the available space.”
International example
The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Sweden and the United Kingdom signed a collection of working agreements today. By the alias Greater North Sea Basin Initiative (GNSBI), they organize their government structures in such a way that countries and sectors can find each other faster and better. This makes it easier to share knowledge with each other, for example about the future prospects of fishing or about the joint effect on the North Sea of, for example, wind farms, sand extraction and shipping.
The European Commission has previously indicated that GNSBI is an example for the rest of Europe on how spatial planning can be optimized internationally.