Cooperation between the North Sea countries
The countries with North Sea coastlines have substantial interests in common relating to the sea of which each of them administers a section. Neither the water system, nor the living nature is bound by national borders. So it is evident that the countries of the North Sea must coordinate their policy, management and use. And that they must seek to cooperate, share knowledge, develop a common vision for North Sea policy and, together, develop indicators for cross-border monitoring of the North Sea system.
From time to time, North Sea countries organise an official North Sea Ministers conference at the highest political level. At the conference in May 2022 the ministers unanimously endorsed the wish to boost off-shore energy generation and the cooperation needed to achieve this (The North Seas Energy Cooperation 2020-2023).
Spatial planning and ecology are standing areas for attention in terms of consultation and cooperation. The Bonn Convention, for instance, focuses on the protection of migratory animal species, whereas the Bonn Agreement addresses cooperation in tackling environmental pollution (oil) as a result of incidents and emergencies.
The North Sea countries are taking a cross-border approach to the implementation of the EU Maritime Spatial Planning Directive. The forum for this is the North Sea Region Maritime Spatial Planning Collaboration Group.