A LOOK at vital issues across the North Sea reveals the region suffers from a lack of collaboration in policy-making. With an internationalist outlook, an independent Scotland could lead in founding a North Sea body that covers areas such as fisheries, shipping, energy, and defence.

Past pleas for a more strategic approach to North Sea affairs have seemingly gone unheard. Baroness Scott, the chair of a House of Lords EU sub-committee, said in 2015: “If the North Sea is left unco-ordinated, the conflict between environmental sustainability and economic growth will intensify. To avoid that, and to strike the right balance, we will need a coordinated and strategic approach.”

Yet co-operation among North Sea nations has been increasingly tested across policy areas since then, particularly due to Brexit. There is also a sense of Euroscepticism, the extent of which is arguable so far, within other European countries. This despite the fact that these nations – the UK, Germany, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and France – largely have similar political ideologies and share vested interests in the region.

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The best example of disunity when it comes to these interests is in the sustainable energy sector. Many great initiatives exist spontaneously at different levels across the North Sea, including the public-private research programme North Sea Energy and Scotland’s Climate Beacons project by Creative Carbon Scotland.

It is clear why – the North Sea has always held enormous potential to produce energy from wind. However, the UK’s withdrawal from the EU “North Seas Energy Co-operation” has undoubtedly placed a strain on the ability to commit to an all-encompassing power grid, in strict contrast to Scotland’s green agenda.

Scotland’s responsible approach to sustainability as a whole also ties in to another key issue across the North Sea. The UK’s exit from the EU has continued to complicate fishing policy across Europe, particularly sparking tensions with France and Denmark.

The EU’s common fisheries policy should largely manage the quotas with species population in mind. However, the North Sea has seen a significant loss in species diversity due to overfishing – for example, the decline in the Atlantic Wolffish and in the case of the Common Skate, near extinction. There is a desperate need for a tailored look at the future of North Sea fishing among its nations that takes both livelihoods and species into account.

There is also a clear desire to achieve further shipping routes to connect the region, particularly as a result of Brexit. One such example is the introduction of a passenger and freight route between Rosyth and Zeebrugge in Belgium.

The barrier to further developments is the lack of infrastructure to multi-nationally, and therefore, to discuss strategically the development of shipping routes specific to the North Sea. The absence of such a body hinders nations’ existing schemes such as the UK’s Maritime 2050, Denmark’s Maritime Spatial Plan, and Germany’s Maritime Agenda 2025.

They are hampered in comparison to the possibilities that deepened partnership within the region could yield through a joined-up approach.

Another area that could benefit from a sub-regional focus is defence. According to a briefing paper by the Royal United Services Institute, the UK’s disconnect from the EU’s culture of cooperative thinking risks it drifting away from nations such as France on security.

This is at a time when tensions continue to rise across the world. A worrying trend for the region is the apparent increased risk of Russian interference. A particularly relevant report from Reuters showed that four bombers approached UK airspace in a single incident in February of 2022. The presence of a body to facilitate intelligence sharing and defence cooperation between nations that is specific to the North Sea could heavily encourage preparedness and therefore act as a deterrent.

Working with our closest allies upon gaining independence, Scotland could found a body that covers the full breadth of major issues and that could influence changes at national level to ensure the North Sea has a bright and sustainable future for all of its inhabitants.

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Set up to encourage diplomacy at national level, such a body could take the form of a council that makes recommendations to North Sea governments. Sub-regional agreements brought about by similar bodies can help states actually exceed sustainability targets, through internal diplomatic pressure to meet shared interests. This is particularly evidenced by the Scandinavian nations’ net-zero success, that exceeds wider global goals.

It is clear that Scotland is already willing to bring change on many of the issues that so desperately need a joined-up approach across North Sea nations. If the UK is willing to sit around on reserved powers, when there is clearly so much good to be done, we should take those powers back for ourselves.