Joe Borg is not responsible for maritime transport

European Commissioner Joe Borg has explained his role as Commissioner-Designate for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, pointing out that responsibility for maritime transport and safety will be firmly in the hands of the Commissioner for Transport, Frenchman Jacques Barrot.

Dr Borg was replying to a questionnaire sent to him by the European Parliament.

During a recent meeting of the EP's fisheries committee, the committee's president, Philippe Morillion, expressed doubts over what the President-designate of the Commission intended by assigning maritime affairs together with fisheries to Dr Borg.

Dr Borg explained that José Manoel Barroso has asked him to set up a new maritime policy task force with the aim of developing a Green Paper and launching a wide consultation on a future maritime policy of the Union.

Dr Borg said: "There is much important work relating to maritime affairs that has been done, or is being done, by various services that respond to different commissioners, such as those responsible for the environment, transport, energy, research, regional policy, enterprise and also others. It will be my task to ensure that through the maritime affairs task force we can build upon this valuable work and place it in a solid, holistic and coherent policy framework and I look forward to working closely with the commissioners concerned in this regard".

Dr Borg added that his responsibility will be to steer the work of the task force and to animate a wide public consultation exercise with all stakeholders in order to reach the widest possible consensus on the principles and means that should underpin the maritime policy of the European Union for the future.

He said: "Within this agreed framework, it is clear that all commissioners would be fully responsible for the policies and sectors which they have been entrusted with by the President-designate. In the context of maritime affairs, the Community should also continue to closely follow matters related to the Law of the Sea".

Asked to specify aspects of his personal qualifications and professional experience of particular relevance to his nomination, Dr Borg said he is a long-standing believer in the European project and has devoted his career until May of this year to ensuring that Malta participated in it. He said he has followed European affairs closely since before 1989 when he had been given the responsibility by the Prime Minister of Malta to coordinate preparations for Malta's application for EU membership.

Dr Borg declared: "During that year I established and headed the EU Directorate within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a role that I filled until I was elected to Parliament in 1995. After a spell as shadow Minister for Industry, I was appointed Parliamentary Secretary responsible for European Affairs in 1998. In April 1999, I was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs with direct responsibility for the accession process and negotiations, including the successful negotiations that defined a Maltese fisheries conservation zone to protect the marine ecosystem around the Maltese islands in a context of sustainable fishing".

He said that throughout the accession process he ensured constant and systematic consultations with all stakeholders in all sectors of the negotiations through a steering committee that he personally chaired. He said that as Foreign Minister he was also involved in the work of the Intergovernmental Conference that led to the final agreement on the European constitution.

Dr Borg also said that "being a member of the College of Commissioners since May 1 has also allowed me to deepen further my knowledge and understanding of the Commission as an institution and its place, together with the Parliament, the Council, and the other institutions, in the architecture of the Union".

Until the end of October, the current term of the present Commission, Dr Borg is serving as a commissioner in the development portfolio together with Commissioner Paul Nielson.

Dr Borg will appear before the European Parliament on October 5 and is expected to be grilled about his knowledge of the new portfolio during a three-hour special session of Parliament's fisheries committee.

This is part of the procedure every nominated commissioner has to go through before MEPs vote on the commissioner's nomination.