Twenty-eight maritime, marine and coastal organisations and networks have committed themselves to the creation a common European platform. At the Littoral 2008 conference in Venice, Friday 28 November, the “Venice Declaration” was signed by 30 representatives on behalf of all these organisations and national networks. The “Venice Platform” is intended to offer an improved dialogue and cooperation between existing maritime, marine and coastal networks, representing stakeholders in the fields of science, technology, industry, management, policy and users of the coastal and marine environment.

The Venice Platform aims to contribute to developing interactions between partners (Member States, regional authorities, the research community, industry and other stakeholders) and it will support the future EU Maritime Policy, e.g. through the development and implementation of an ambitious European Strategy and programme on maritime, marine and coastal research.

To this end the Venice Platform Declaration has adopted the following objectives:

• providing a forum for dialogue with the Commission on the development and implementation of the maritime policy;
• providing a forum for dialogue with the Commission on the development and implementation of an underlying maritime research policy supporting the necessary funding mechanisms, specialised infrastructures, data collection and information management and capacity building essential to manage our on-going relationship with the oceans and seas;
• taking better advantage of the widespread and diverse knowledge, experience and information existing in the European communities of maritime, marine and coastal professionals; the Platform will therefore foster cooperation and sharing of networking activities, aiming in particular at transferring knowledge, experience and information across existing networks.

Until the formal inauguration of the Venice Platform, EUCC – Coastal & Marine Union, with the support of ENCORA and CORILA, will serve as its provisional Secretariat. It will operate four regional nodes connecting to the regional seas: Leiden (EUCC International), Venice (CORILA), Barcelona (EUCC Mediterranean Centre), and Warnemünde (EUCC Germany).

The provisional contact address is:

From left to right: Pierpaolo Campostrini (CORILA), Johan Vande Lanotte (EUCC), Paul Nemitz (DG MARE), Karen Fabbri (DG RTD) and Birgit Snoeren (DG ENV)

EUCC's new president Dr. Johan Vande Lanotte chaired the launch of the Venice Platform. Dr. Vande Lanotte, who has been the first Minister for the North Sea in Belgium (2003-2005), stressed the importance of a better dialogue between the science community, industry, NGOs and policy makers.