Context of the Project
Maritimes activities, and more generally sea-related issues, are of the utmost importance for the European Union (EU). As a matter of fact, its shoreline is approximately 150,000 km long (even more than that of the United States) and the regulated maritime zones under Member States’ jurisdiction are larger than their terrestrial territory. As maritime spaces are more and more exploited and maritime activities move further from the coast, management and surveillance of territorial waters (up to 12 nautical miles) are not sufficient anymore. Member States have now a vital interest in their Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) which extends to 200 nautical miles (370 km) from the coast. However, vessel traffic monitoring is currently unable to be extended efficiently to such a range.
This priority can be explained by the fact that over two thirds of EU’s borders are coastal and that 90% of the EU foreign trade and 43% of its internal trade are transported by sea. This represents 3.5 billion tons of cargo and 350 millions of passengers per year. The map below (Figure 1) establishes a comparison between trade by road and by sea. A blue line represents, in tons of freight, for the same size, twice as much as a red line, thus revealing the importance of maritime freight transport.
Figure 1: European ocean and short sea shipping routes