Maritime Europe
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Maritime Europe and the Enlargement of European Union
The enlargement of Europe has generated a maritime projection towards two inland seas, the Mediterranean and the Baltic, with the latter almost completely falling under the sovereignty of Member States.
It has become more profoundly continental in character, and the percentage of coastal States, which had stood at 86.6% with 15 members, has now been reduced to 80%. All these features will be enhanced with the enlargement planned for 2007 and beyond, and the accession of Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia —as well as of Turkey on an as yet undecided date— which will afford access to the Black Sea and a large area of the Mediterranean.
The maritime Europe that results from the as yet unfinished enlargement process will have new foundations, established not only by the new geographical reality of the European coastlines and seas, but also by the economies of the various maritime activities which may lead to changes that it is still difficult to determine. These changes could affect both the proposed common defence and security policy and the various sectoral policies, some of which, including fishing and ship-building, will have to confront crisis situations and visible decline. The issue put up for debate in these pages is the extent to which the new maritime Europe will represent, in the short- and medium-term, a new opportunity, or will aggravate already-existing problems and threats.
The Mediterranean still plays an important part on the world stage as an area of sea-traffic due to the role of the Straits of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal, as well as the link between both of these and the Turkish straits. This is in great contrast to the Baltic, which from the geostrategic and stability point-of-view is afforded the status of a cul de sac.
