EU missions : restore our ocean and waters : baseline study : Baltic and North Sea Lighthouse.
Date: 2024-09-27
Institutions: Directorate-General for Research and Innovation
Subjects: Baltic Sea, EU activity, North Sea, aquaculture, carbon neutrality, maritime economy, maritime transport, sustainable development

 EU 
MISSIONS

R E S TO R E   O U R   O C E A N   A N D  WAT E R S

Baseline study - Baltic and North Sea Lighthouse

Mission Ocean and Waters lighthouses serve as sites to pilot, demonstrate, develop, and deploy Mission activities across EU seas 
and river basins. The objective of the Baltic and North Sea Lighthouse focuses on Mission objective 3:  ‘Make the sustainable 
Blue economy carbon neutral and circular’, through the following two specific targets:

Eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from maritime economic activities 
in the EU and sequester those emissions that cannot be avoided  
(net zero maritime emission) 

Develop zero-carbon and low-impact aquaculture, and promote circular, 
low carbon multi-purpose use of marine and water space

A baseline study was carried out in 2021-2022 and proposed 
a draft set of indicators to measure Mission progress towards 
its targets. It also analysed various elements and actions 
crucial for achieving Mission objectives, including: 

•  Governance structures, institutions, stakeholder initiatives and networks, 

key projects 

•  Regional, national and macro-regional and Smart Specialisation Strategies, 

National Recovery and Resilience Plans 

•  Activities supporting citizen engagement and ocean literacy

The overall objective of the baseline study for the Baltic 
and North Sea basins, was to focus on and analyse six Blue 
Economy sectors, namely:

•  Maritime transport (with a focus 
on passenger ferry transport) 

•  Offshore renewable energy 

storage facilities 

•  Maritime ports and facilities 

•  Multipurpose platforms

•  Offshore renewable energy 

•  Aquaculture.

facilities 

With a 2030 target, the EU Mission "Restore our Ocean and Waters" aims to 
protect and restore the health of our ocean and waters through research 
and innovation, citizen engagement and blue investments.

BALTIC SEA BASIN

NORTH SEA BASIN

85 million  
inhabitants

Area coverage   
415 266 km2

Coastline 
8 000 km

80  million  
inhabitants

Area coverage   
575 000 km2

Coastline 
7 800  km

BASELINE
STATE OF PLAY 
2021 – 2022

Maritime Transport & Ports

•  There are different types of alternative fuels and propulsion systems 

that can support decarbonisation of the maritime transport, including 
batteries/electricity, LNG, ammonia, methanol, hydrogen, biofuels, and 
Power to X (PtX).  

Number of operational ferries using alternative fuels, by fuel type, 
out of all ferries operating in the lighthouse area : 

In the North Sea (2020)

In the Baltic Sea (2020) 

•  Norway: 49 electric ferries in 

•  Total: 425 passenger vessels of 

operation, 24 are operational  
in 2022 and 10 planned for 
beyond 2022. 

•  Norway: 23 LNG  

car/passenger ferries

the IMO registered ships in 2015 

•  Electric ferries identified: 11

•  LNG ferries identified: 7

  8  

 5

Sweden

  3  

 2

Denmark

Germany

  4  

 4

  4  

 3

Finland

Estonia

  3  

 0

Lithuania

  3  

 0

Latvia

  4  

 3

Offshore Renewable Energy facilities (RE)

•  Wind is the largest source of offshore RE in Europe.

Number of onshore power supply 
facilities in the Baltic Sea and amount  
of which are high voltage facilities 

   Onshore Power Supply

  No. of High Voltage

•  The Commission aims at having an installed 

capacity of at least 60 GW of offshore 
wind and at least 1 GW of ocean energy 
by 2030, with a view of reaching 
respectively 300 GW and 40 GW of 
installed capacity by 2050. 

•  The main barrier to offshore wind 
energy is related to permitting.

Data sources

EU Strategy for Baltic and North Sea basins

Strategy for the Baltic basin

Strategy for the North Sea basin

•  The EU strategy for the Baltic Sea region 

•  The North Sea Region Strategy 2030, jointly 

(EUSBSR) is a macro-regional strategy aiming 
to strengthen cooperation between the 
countries bordering the Baltic Sea to meet 
the common challenges and to benefit from 
common opportunities facing the region. 
Four key challenges have been identified as 
requiring urgent attention: 

defined by regional authorities across the North 
Sea, defines the most pressing issues and topics 
where transnational cooperation and action 
is of added importance. The four new priority 
areas for cooperation until 2030 are:  

•  Productive and sustainable North Sea

•  Data were extracted from reputable data 
sources such as Eurostat, OECD, the World 
Bank, the Blue Economy report, the World 
Factbook CIA, the European Environment 
Agency, and the Office for National 
 Statistics (UK).

•  Enable a sustainable environment

•  Enhance the region’s prosperity

•  Increase accessibility and attractiveness

•  Ensure safety and security in the region

•  Climate neutral North Sea

•  Connected North Sea region

•  Smart North Sea region

Data gaps

•  Limited data is available on 

supporting infrastructure for 
hydrogen, methanol, ammonia, 
which is also linked to limited 
usage of these fuels. 

•  The low number of operational 
offshore RE energy storage has 
produced little data, which is not 
centrally stored. 

•  There is a lack of a harmonised 
practice for the collection, 
processing, and publication of 
indicators and data tracking for 
offshore wind farms.

•  The data gaps for aquaculture 
are significant due to lack of 
distinction between way of 
production. 

Link to the report

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All images © European Union, unless otherwise stated. Image sources: © Richard Carey, # 209819526, 2021. Source: Stock.Adobe.com. 

PDF

ISBN 978-92-68-11519-0 

doi:10.2777/00899  

KI-05-24-046-EN-N