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British-Irish Council – Annual Report – 2012
British-Irish Council Summit, Stirling, Scotland – June 2012
The 18th Summit of the British-Irish Council was held in Stirling on 22nd June 2012 and was
chaired by the First Minister of Scotland, Rt. Hon. Alex Salmond, MSP. The Council focused
its discussions on marine energy and youth employment.
Marine Energy
The Council reviewed in detail the work undertaken by the Council’s Marine Energy work
sector and welcomed the progress on advancing marine energy co-operation since the issue
was last discussed in 2010. It noted the excellent progress that had been made in negotiations
with the European Commission since 2010 to include marine energy in the EU’s Strategic
Energy Technology plan, and endorsed the formalisation of an EU-wide partnership for
marine renewables through establishing an Ocean Energy ERA-NET collaborative action
during 2012 between Member States and the Commission. The Council also considered how
marine energy could be progressed at European level during Ireland’s Presidency of the
European Union in the first half of 2013.
Youth Employment
Ministers exchanged views and examined early progress on the various initiatives aimed at
helping young people into employment in each Member Administration. In order to sustain
and develop this important work, the Council agreed to consider at its next summit in Wales
specific proposals to develop further its work on youth employment.
Other issues
The Council noted the good progress made in each of the eleven work sectors and briefly
discussed the possibility of collaboration around the creative industries. The Secretariat was
tasked with producing a scoping paper on the potential benefit of Member Administrations
co-operating on creative industries. The Council also endorsed the Secretariat Business Plan.