NORTH SEA COMMISSION

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

WORKING GROUP MEETING

HAARLEM 5^TH DECEMBER 2005

DRAFT MINUTES

MEETING VENUE:

Provincie Noord-Holland, Haarlem, the Netherlands

ATTENDEES:

Ms Rinske Kruisinga, - Councillor Provincial Government of Noord-Holland, chair NSC EDG

Mr Kevan Lim, - Councillor Suffolk County Council, England, vice-chair NSC EDG

Mr James Knowles, - Head of Economic Development, Aberdeenshire Council, Scotland

Mr Robert Cornfield, - officer, Provincie Noord-Holland

Mr Erik Lindboe, - Co-ordinator NSC EDG, Rogaland County Council, Norway

AGENDA:

09.00: Welcome

- The Action Plan

- The Maritime EU Green paper

12.00: Lunch

12.45: End of meeting

1) Welcome

Ms Rinske Kruisinga, chair of the NSC EDG, welcomed the Working Group to Haarlem, and led the group through the meeting.

2) The Action Plan

The Working Group discussed the contents of the Action Plan and the need of revising the plan and necessary tasks required to deliver its objectives.

On the agenda was also future work structure and activities.

The Working Group recognized the fact that it from time to time is difficult to assemble the members of the thematic groups. Some of our members have expressed that this may be a question of both time and money, and in addition the contents of meetings may be a point. We have all busy days, with a number of meetings and tasks in our daily work, plus the NSC meetings, plus the thematic group meetings, aso.

Important questions: How can we awaken the interest of our members, how can we present an interesting agenda to the members/what should be on the agenda, how can we ensure our members engagement and participation in our work, meetings and discussions?

Mr James Knowles went through a list of points that may be of interest to our group:

- Communications: North Sea Commission Executive Committee decisions/minutes should be part of the agenda. The information to be disseminated through the system.

- Following each thematic group meeting, there should be a press release. Responsibility: The co-ordinators.

- Minutes of other Thematic Groups should be reported to Economic Development Group, as there may be some interest in all of the groups.

- Disseminating information to the people who come to the Economic Development, and then further on to their colleges, superiors, politicians.

- What about the links with the Baltic?

- Do we need to take action toward the Lisbon and Gothenburg agendas as discussed at Trollhättan?

- Themed meetings in the EDG.

- State Aid Rules.

- “Starting up a business" - different rules in the different regions.

- The planned T.V. series on the North Sea.

- Co-operation with other thematic groups.

Mr Kevan Lim suggested that we should use e-mail and newsletters actively in our work. He also suggested that the Economic Development group’s next meeting should be a distant meeting (i.e. a virtual meeting/video-conference), and that we at the present should focus on one issue only. Following last year’s Knowledge Audit we should have these issues in mind:

- Energy / Renewable Energy

- Rural Development (including local food production and promotion)

- SMEs

- The Baltic

3) Decisions

Following the discussion, the working group decided to put Renewable Energy and Communication as the starting points for the coming year’s actions.

Actions	Responsibility
Send newsletter/e-mails to EDG members, with information about the planned virtual meeting on renewables.	Erik Lindboe, EDG co-ordinator
E-mail EDG members, enquring about who’s working with energy / renewables in the different member regions.	Erik
E-mail EDG members to find out who has access to video-conferences.	Erik
Find speakers for the virtual meeting	Kevan Lim, EDG vice-chair Albert Moens, Renewable Energy Subgroup chair
Plan/set up the agenda for the meeting.	Kevan and Albert
Contact Albert Moens, chair of the Renewable Energy Subgroup, to join forces with Kevan Lim on organizing the virtual meeting	Rinske Kruisinga, EDG chair
Find a suitable date for the virtual meeting. (February 2006 was suggested).	Kevan and Albert
Prepare an evaluation meeting afterwards	The EDG Working Group
E-mail EDG members, asking who has connections with the Baltic states.	Erik

Actions	Responsibility
Produce e-mails and newsletters before/after all meetings/events	Erik
Update and revise the EDG Action plan 2006 - 2007	Erik
E-mail the Action Plan to EDG members for comments	Erik
Present the Action Plan to the NSC ExCom meeting in Ipswich in March 2006	Rinske
Investigate the possibility for a “chat-room”/ discussion site on the NSC website	Erik

3) The EU Maritime Green Paper

The EDG acknowledge the importance of the NSC contributing to the EU Green Paper on Maritime policies.

However, at this stage the Economic Development Group is not yet ready to respond to the request for EDG comments on this matter. We are still collecting comments from our members, and opinions differ from region to region. Also, local parliaments are to discuss the issue soon. The EDG will come back to the Green paper at the Bergen meeting in January 2006.

4) End of meeting

Rinske Kruisinga closed the meeting, thanking all attendees. The EDG Working Group would like to thank Rinske and the Provincie Noord-Holland for hosting the group.

8^th December 2005

Erik Lindboe, co-ordinator