Conference

Last night and today have been spent with my colleagues from Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, Holland, Netherlands, France and Denmark trying to formulate and extend our policy on various issues relating to the Marine Environment.

We have had a number of recent successes - after years and years of trying - at both OSPAR and at the North Sea Commission. Were it not for KIMO, there would be no mapping of munitions dumps and no statutory reporting framework for munitions washed ashore; the prevention of marine litter and associated training programmes would not be on the agenda; the debate on liability for pollution from container ships would have been buried; and, the arguments for a European Coastguard service to prevent oil pollution and protect our shores wouldn't even have begun.

We have yet to succeed in stopping nuclear waste transportation by sea, but it remains and active objective.

This weekend we are fine-tuning some new policies and these will be adopted by the 6.5 million in 9 countries that KIMO represent. As International President, I present these policies to the members and the European politicians, and hope that some of them will take up the ideas and carry them forward.