The conference will also be the occasion for Commissioner Damanaki, the Hellenic Presidency of the EU and Mrs. Meissner (MEP) to welcome the political agreement between the European Parliament and the Council concerning the Directive on Maritime Spatial Planning.

Shipping, a traditional maritime sector, has to interact with new activities that redefine the use of marine space between movement and fixedness (for example offshore energy and aquaculture). Simultaneously, by 2030, maritime transport is predicted to rise by 50%. Those evolutions create new issues in terms of safety, access to space, environmental concerns and the efficiency and competitiveness of maritime transport. With the entry into force of the Directive for Maritime Spatial Planning later in 2014, MSP will become an increasingly important policy framework. Shipping and port industries will have to be involved in the regional, national and sea-basin processes of the spatial planning of Europe's seas.

The conference will be the third in our series of stakeholder events assessing the benefits and challenges of Maritime Spatial Planning for specific maritime sectors and activities. On 14 June 2013, in Dublin, the first meeting was dedicated to MSP and energy and, on 15 November in Vilnius, the second meeting was dedicated to fisheries.

For more information and the programme, please visit the website of the conference