WS B-5. Critical Maritime Infrastructure and the Blue Economy

Speakers:

• Professor Christian Bueger, University of Copenhagen & SafeSeas network of maritime security

• Dr. Iglika Yakova, from DG Mare

• Dr. Izabella Surwillo, Danish Institute for International Studies

• Nathalie de Jaeger, Belgian Government

• Anne Mette Mosekjær Søndergaard, Head of Public Affairs Denmark, Ørsted

This event investigates the mutual relationship between blue economy development and critical maritime infrastructures. It starts out from the observation that growing infrastructure development in regional seas, such as the North Sea, have increased societal and economic dependency on the sea. Further developing these infrastructures, specifically renewable energy, is vital for the green transition. The expansion of maritime infrastructures have increasingly turned regional seas into heavily industrialized spaces that need to be carefully managed to ensure that the interests from all sectors of the blue economy are taken into account an multi-use conflicts are avoided. The same time, the more that dependency on maritime infrastructures increases and these become more and more critical to European societies, the more efforts are required to protect maritime installations. Yet, protection efforts, whether through military forces, polices or industry self- protection should be carefully evaluated to ensure that they do not undermine the expansion plans.

This event reflects on these issues in asking:

How can we better prevent multi-use conflicts in industrialized region seas, such as the North Sea or the Meditteranean?

Which protection efforts are needed to ensure that infrastructures are well taken care of while not introducing unnecessary burdens?

Panelists include representatives from academia, industry, law enforcement, and regulators.