Transport chronicle
France, dare your sea!
Audio 02:30
Cover of the book Osons la Mer by Christian Buchet.
© screenshot/book.fnac.com
By: Marina Mielczarek
4 mins
Let's dare the sea!
This cry from the heart is that of a book by one of the greatest specialists in the maritime sector, Christian Buchet, director of studies at the Catholic Institute of Paris.
At the head of Océanides, a think tank dedicated to the sea, Christian Buchet works with 40 countries.
In his book, published by Cherche Midi, he regrets the lack of French ambition.
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Marina Mielczarek: Your book
Dare the sea!
is a cry from the heart.
France lacks ambition, you say?
Christian Buchet:
I have been campaigning for twenty-five years for France to live up to its maritime potential!
But as long as the cities of France are not connected to their local port (regional port) the flow of goods will not work!
RFI: Is it a question of regional planning?
CB:
Of course yes!
Do you realize that our two major ports, Marseille and Le Havre, are experiencing much less activity than our neighbors in Northern Europe!
Today French imports and exports are done more through the ports of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg than Marseille or Le Havre!
RFI: Are you advocating for the construction of new railways and roads between cities and the sea?
CB
: Yes!
And it is at the regional level that this must be done.
Each department, each region should prepare a plan to develop its access to the sea. It would be good for jobs and also very good for protecting the climate!
Less transport distances therefore less pollution.
RFI: What about transport by rivers? For twenty years, the river transport sector has been asking successive governments for aid to connect ports to major inland cities!
CB:
Yes!
River transport is a great asset.
Such a development would restart the French economy!
A maritime policy is not a fishing policy, it is a policy of the territory and its development, France had more navigable waterways under Louis XIV than today.
RFI: Why isn't this happening?
CB
: Because there is no political will!
I am not throwing stones at anyone.
I meet them with politicians: yes, they do things, but they have so many choices in the budgets to arbitrate that they haven't made these connections to the ports their priorities.
RFI: Your book denounces short-term objectives...
CB:
Land use planning is a long-term project.
History has proven that the powers that succeed are the countries that have been able to develop their territory towards their ports.
This opens up the country and turns it outwards.
RFI: You say it frankly, you fear the Chinese offensive in Europe. The Chinese buying up and developing ports, the latest being ports in Italy.
CB:
The ports of Europe will be part of the
New Silk Roads
(this major infrastructure program that China launched in 2013 Ed).
In Greece they now have the port of Piraeus.
In Italy, they are going to invest in the ports of Genoa, Trieste and Savona.
The signature is given, they give themselves ten years to complete the work.
RFI: How is this a threat to France?
CB:
because all the goods will go through Italy and we will have to pay additional taxes to Italy since it is a unilateral agreement with China.
Throughout the southeastern quarter of France, business owners and local consumers will be trapped.
RFI: It's an incongruity when you know that China is only the 10th maritime territory in the world, far from France which occupies the podium!
CB:
Exactly!
We are the second maritime domain in the world, just behind the United States.
Our chance is overseas.
On a European scale, Europe has the largest sea surface in the world!
RFI: You like to say that the European Union will be maritime or it will not be!
CB:
It's true!
What we need is a spatial planning policy.
By staying in the flow, we will succeed in growing our future economy.
All the civilizations that have endured in the history of humanity, the Mayas, the Aztecs, in South America or ancient Rome for example, are civilizations that had opened up to the sea.
RFI: As director of Océanides (a program involving 40 countries around maritime issues) you confirm the thesis that the circulation of maritime flows is the key to economic democracy.
CB:
Traffic, turning to flows, is the real key to success.
Our generation has the chance to enter a new geopolitical era, protecting the environment.
Well let's go, dare to dive into the sea!
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