On 29 January, DG MARE is hosting the conference "Regional cooperation on energy and maritime spatial planning in the North Sea" in Edinburgh, United Kingdom.

An economic heavyweight and the most densely used maritime and coastal space in Europe, the North Sea holds the highest potential in Europe for the development of offshore wind energy.

Cooperation at sea-basin level has an essential role to play in reaching this potential: to reduce regulatory uncertainty, address the increasing risks of conflicts over space use with other sectors such as fisheries or transport, and create the necessary strategic vision for the development of energy interconnections.

With the event, the European Commission aims to bring together stakeholders from the energy, fisheries, transport, shipping and environmental fields, national authorities and representatives of existing cooperation bodies in the North Sea to discuss how to answer the energy challenges at sea-basin level in a strategic way.

Detailed information on the programme and online registration is available here.