Petterson speech at 25 BSPC

Mr Chair, Colleagues, friends,It is my pleasure to present the Report on Integrated Maritime Policy I have written together with my colleague Jochen Schulte who unfortunately could not make it to Riga.International shipping has been in a financial turmoil during the last decade. But today we can see the light in the horizon and a newborn optimism. The reasons are many but an important part is the relatively low oil price which has milden the effects from the SECA-regulations that came into effect 2015. The SECA has now made the shippingindustry in the Baltic Sea the most sustainable operator in the world which can be fruitful when the rest of the world have to adjust to stronger sulphurdirectives. Blue Growth is the future and sustainability a necessity.The report is published on the BSPC-website but I would like to highlight a few key messages which are essential in order to make shipping more sustainable and more lucrative. Please keep this in mind in your future work related to the shippingindustry in the Baltic Sea and beyond.Sectors such as ocean energy provide massive opportunities for growth, jobs and global environmental gains; we should not be discouraged by the challenges that are still outstanding, but should tackle them gradually and keep a long term focus.Ocean Energy also shows how important it is to prioritize strategic investments that provide returns not only in economic terms but also in terms of climate and environmental benefits.Action at regional level is vital in boosting Blue Growth. The most advanced regions are systematically developing their transnational partnerships to maximize their potential and bundle strengths. This could be further facilitated through wider Blue Growth platforms that could turn the ambitions of these actors into concrete and joint investments.If we are to get a return from all the investments in innovation and infrastructure, developing skills is critical. It is hard to predict what future jobs will entail, so it is important to educate also for the 'unknown'.One of the most interesting topics right now is the use of autonomous vessels in the future. In order to make this happen, and it will, we need to think about a few things:Support research, technology development and standards for autonomous vessels.Take the lead and coordinate development of a new regulations framework for autonomous vessels with the aim to make proposals to IMO.Promote a goal/performance based regulatory framework that does not rely heavily on prescriptive requirements and legacy technologies.Facilitate trials and piloting efforts by making exemptions from current regulations and establish designated test areas for unmanned vessels.Support research and standardization within cyber security, with focus on maritime context and applications.Realize the importance of standards for quality assurance and to achieve interoperability, competition and economies of scale.Foster data governance in order to enable a fair and fertile environment for new data-driven services that will capitalize on EUs technology excellence and trigger high skill job creation.Finally I would like to thank Jochen Schulte and mr Florian Lipowski who both played an active part in the writing of the report. Shipping is vital and environmental and plays an important part on our way to a sustainable Baltic Sea.