Natura 2000 is a network of nature protection areas in the territory of the European Union. It is made up of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas designated under the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, respectively. The network includes both terrestrial and Marine Protected Areas.
The terms international waters or trans-boundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed regional seas and estuaries, rivers, lakes, groundwater systems (aquifers), and wetlands.
The European Committee for Standardization is a public standards organization whose mission is to foster the economy of the European Single Market and the wider European continent in global trading, the welfare of European citizens and the environment by providing an efficient infrastructure to interested parties for the development, maintenance and distribution of coherent sets of standards and specifications.
The International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) is an international organisation with its permanent secretariat in Vienna. It was established by the Danube River Protection Convention, signed by the Danube countries in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1994.
Copernicus is the European Union's Earth observation programme coordinated and managed by the European Commission in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA), the EU Member States and EU agencies.
Water supply and sanitation (WSS) in the European Union (EU) is the responsibility of each member state, but in the 21st century union-wide policies have come into effect. Water resources are limited and supply and sanitation systems are under pressure from urbanisation and climate change. Indeed, the stakes are high as the European Environmental Agency found that one European out of ten already suffers a situation of water scarcity and the IEA measured the energy consumption of the water sector to be equivalent to 3,5% of the electricity consumption of the EU.
Toy safety is the practice of ensuring that toys, especially those made for children, are safe, usually through the application of set safety standards. In many countries, commercial toys must be able to pass safety tests in order to be sold. In the U.S., some toys must meet national standards, while other toys may not have to meet a defined safety standard. In countries where standards exist, they exist in order to prevent accidents, but there have still been some high-profile product recalls after such problems have occurred. The danger is often not due to faulty design; usage and chance both play a role in injury and death incidents as well.
The (European) Union Space Programme was established along with its managing agency in 2021, in order to implement the pre-existing European Space Policy established on 22 May 2007 when a joint and concomitant meeting at the ministerial level of the Council of the European Union and the Council of the European Space Agency adopted a Resolution on the European Space Policy. The policy had been jointly drafted by the European Commission and the Director General of the European Space Agency. This was the first common political framework for space activities established by the European Union (EU).
Transport in the European Union is a shared competence of the Union and its member states. The European Commission includes a Commissioner for Transport, currently Adina Ioana Vălean. Since 2012, the Commission also includes a Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport which develops EU policies in the transport sector and manages funding for Trans-European Networks and technological development and innovation, worth €850 million yearly for the period 2000–2006.
The Marine Institute is a State agency in Ireland that provides government, public agencies and the maritime industry with a range of scientific, advisory and economic development services, aiming to inform policy-making, regulation and the sustainable management and growth of the country’s marine resources. Founded in 1991 on foot of a 1974 report, the Institute undertakes, coordinates and promotes marine research and development, which is essential to achieving a sustainable ocean economy, protecting ecosystems and inspiring a shared understanding of the ocean. The agency is governed by a ministerially-appointed board and has a professional staff, a headquarters near Galway, an office in Dublin, and two research vessels.
MyOcean is a series of projects granted by the European Commission within the GMES Program, whose objective is to define and to set up a concerted and integrated pan-European capacity for ocean monitoring and forecasting. The activities benefit several specified areas of use: Maritime security, oil spill prevention, marine resources management, climate change, seasonal forecasting, coastal activities, ice sheet surveys, water quality and pollution. The series of MyOcean projects ended in 2015, and their services are now continued by the Copernicus Programme.
Design for All in the context of information and communications technology (ICT) is the conscious and systematic effort to proactively apply principles, methods and tools to promote universal design in computer-related technologies, including Internet-based technologies, thus avoiding the need for a posteriori adaptations, or specialised design.
The Single European Railway Directive 20122012/34/EU is an EU Directive that regulates railway networks in EU law. This recast the "First Railway Directive" or "Package" from 1991, and allows open access operations on railway lines by companies other than those that own the rail infrastructure. The legislation was extended by further directives to include cross border transit of freight.
The European Atlas of the Seas is an easy-to-use and interactive web-based atlas on the coasts and seas within and around Europe and provides information on Europe's marine environment. It is freely accessible on the internet. The latest version of the Atlas was released on the 16 September 2020 in the 24 official languages of the European Union.
The Flanders Marine Institute provides a focal point for marine scientific research in Flanders, northern Belgium.
Consolidating the former EU Open Data Portal and the European Data Portal, data.europa.eu is the European Union’s services package to promote the reuse of open data from its institutions’ and EU Member States’ among its citizens, businesses and other organisations.
DHI is an international water software development and engineering consultancy firm with headquarters in Denmark. The not-for-profit organisation addresses all challenges in water environments through consultancy services, MIKE Powered by DHI water modelling software, business applications, data portals and operational services. DHI has 30 offices throughout the world, with software development centres in Singapore and Denmark, and approximately 1050 employees.
Since the late 1970s, the European Union's (EU) policy has been to develop and drive appropriate measures to improve air quality throughout the EU. The control of emissions from mobile sources, improving fuel quality and promoting and integrating environmental protection requirements into the transport and energy sector are part of these aims.
Maritime Informatics is a thematic topic within the broader discipline of informatics. It is based on the use of information systems, data sharing and data analytics to increase the efficiency, safety, resilience and ecological sustainability of the world's shipping industry.
The Hydrographic Institute of the Republic of Croatia is a government agency responsible for providing hydrographic and marine geospatial data for the Republic of Croatia. The institute is located in Split, and covers scientific research and development, services related to the safety of navigation, the hydrographic-geodetic survey of the Adriatic sea, marine geodesy, design and publication of nautical charts and books, oceanographic research, and submarine geology research. The Croatian Hydrographic Institute is responsible for the development of navigational safety service in the Adriatic, within the worldwide navigational safety system, and in cooperation with the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, port authorities, the Croatian Navy, lighthouse authorities, and hydrographic offices of all maritime countries, following internationally agreed standards.
