Dear all,

 

Not so much news, but please note the very first item.

 

Our BSRAC meetings and information

 

Our current RAC year ends on 15^th March. Please will you send any outstanding travel claims to us as soon as possible. Thank you.

 

Executive Committee meeting in Tallinn: The minutes will be out as soon as possible.

 

Workshop on Spatial Planning from Tallinn: The report from the meeting will be ready by next week.

 

Salmon Working Group 10^th March Copenhagen: 18 people have registered for the working group. 

There is no confirmation yet of the planned Salmon Workshop in Brussels - due to be held on 28^th April.

 

Pelagic and Demersal Working Groups 17^th and 18^th March in Gdynia: Please remember to register for these workshops as soon as possible. In particular, book your travel in good time – especially if you are coming via Copenhagen.

 

 

Commission/EU meetings and news

 

Maritime Spatial Planning

After the Kick-Off conference last week, Ottilia Thoreson (WWF) has kindly told us about the following meetings planned by the Commission:

1st MSP Workshop, Ispra, Italy, 23-24 April 2009

Conveners: JRC / BSH (= German Federal Maritime Agency)

Topics: MSP principles, objectives, legal aspects and effects

 2nd MSP Workshop, Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel, Azores, Portugal, 2-3 July 2009

Conveners: EC / University of the Azores / OSPAR Commission

Topics: cross-border cooperation, coordination among Member States, the role of Regional Seas Conventions, link between MSP and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD)

 3rd MSP Workshop, Stockholm, Sweden, mid-September 2009

Conveners: EC / Swedish EU Presidency

Topics: final conclusions including on stakeholder participation in MSP, principles, further steps (do we need a MSP Directive?)

 

Progress report, 2010

Summarise workshops and identify policy options and their potential impacts on EU and at MS level.

 

A study on the economic benefits of MSP will also be carried out, no date mentioned

Pilot projects will be used to test initial MSP policy -  one of these will be for the Baltic Sea.

 

Rights based management

Attached is the Final Report on the use of RBM tools in EU fisheries. Be careful: these are BIG documents:

135 and 249 pages.

 

 

HELCOM

 

 

The Baltic Sea Action Plan Stakeholder Conference took place on Tuesday 3^rd March in Helsinki. It gave many stakeholders the chance to come with input and opinions on the Baltic Sea Action Plan. The BS RAC was there and made a presentation of its activities for the coming year. We talked about our Workshop on Maritime Spatial Planning and that we were giving further to what role the BS RAC should play in this process.

There is a lot of commitment behind the BSAP. At the end there was a roundtable discussion, and three questions were discussed:

• How can the gaps in the dialogue between the scientific community and decision-makers be improved?
• How have the financing priorities within the EU and other funds been sufficiently oriented towards the implementation of the BSAP?
• How can greater “political will” for implementation of the BSAP be encouraged?

 

Presented at the meeting was a report on Integrated Thematic Assessment on Biodiversity and Nature Conservation in the Baltic Sea. Attached. (24 pages)

 

European Parliament

 

 

Attwooll report on the governance within the CFP 

The scheduled vote on the draft report by Mrs. Elspeth Attwooll (ALDE, UK) on the governance within the CFP was postponed to 23 March (extraordinary meeting in Strasbourg) at the request of the rapporteur, who is still in search of compromise with other groups on certain key aspects of her report, related in particular to the role of the Regional Advisory Councils.

 

Community control system of the CFP 

During its extraordinary meeting of 23 March, the PECH Committee will examine amendments to the draft report by Mr. Raül Romeva i Rueda (Greens/EFA, E) on the proposal for a regulation establishing a Community control system for ensuring compliance with the rules of the CFP

 

Other news

 

Aina Afanasjeva is new Director of EUROFISH from 1 May 2009

Eurofish have asked us to bring this news:

Aina Afanasjeva joins EUROFISH from a position in the European Commission, DG Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, where since 2005 she has been managing the implementation of EU structural funds programmes in the fisheries sector in different Member States. Before that, for nine years she was Deputy Director of the Latvian fisheries administration. Among her major tasks were the negotiations on trade in fisheries products, preparation of Latvia's accession to the EU, as well as representation of national interests in various EU institutions.

Aina Afanasjeva has a long record of international relations (WTO, FAO and the EU) and she was one of the key national representatives contributing to the FAO EASTFISH project and the establishment of its successor, EUROFISH.

Aina Afanasjeva's educational background is in commodities and trade in food products, the technology of fish products and she has a masters’ degree in food chemistry.

In Aina Afanasjeva's view EUROFISH, since its establishment in 2002, has become a well established regional organisation for the post-harvest fisheries and aquaculture sectors, with twelve participating countries across eastern and western Europe, inside the European Community and outside. “One of the main challenges for EUROFISH in the coming years,” she says, “is to take into consideration the interest of all EUROFISH member countries and to meet the expectations of the fisheries and aquaculture sectors in the region with their different needs, especially in facilitating trade relations and ways to get better value for fisheries and aquaculture products, as well as promoting traditional and new fisheries products.”

Having experienced the process of bringing her home country into the EU, she sees a strong role for EUROFISH in continuing the work in central and eastern European countries of promoting fish processing and fish farming, of identifying trade and market opportunities, and of assisting industry to adapt to international market, quality, and food safety standards.

Aina Afanasjeva adds, "I am encouraged by the support of EUROFISH member countries and also by the new countries that we look forward to welcoming soon in the organisation."

 

 

 

Baltic Sea Regional Advisory Council H.C. Andersens Boulevard 37, 3rd floor DK-1553 København V Tel.: (+45) 33 93 50 00 Fax.: (+45) 33 93 50 09 Mobile(+45) 21 67 72 48 Website: www.bsrac.org