In Nice, the ocean guess of Ursula von der Leyen | EUROtoday

HASu fringe of the Mediterranean, in Nice, Ursula von der Leyen won’t have a lot time to lounge. This Monday, June 9, the president of the fee is getting ready to launch a planetary problem. On the sidelines of the third United Nations Conference on the Ocean (UNOC) which is held within the metropolis of Christian Estrosi, the German presents the European Oceanic Pact, an immense world technique adopted by his faculty of commissioners on June 5.

The ambition is vertiginous: to make the European Union the world lighthouse of ocean governance. “The ocean is water, the water is life. This is why the European Oceanic Pact is so important to us, ”she warns. A press release that hides a much less poetic actuality: the ocean goes via an unprecedented disaster. However, Europe is on the forefront as a result of it has the primary maritime space (“exclusive economic zone”) with round 19 million sq. kilometers, forward of the United States (11.3 million sq. kilometers).

The oceans, a planetary emergency

The numbers make it vertigo. The ocean covers greater than 70 % of the earth’s floor, shelters 80 % of world biodiversity and produces half of the oxygen that we breathe. For Europe, additionally it is 74 % of overseas commerce which transits by sea and 99 % of worldwide web visitors through underwater cables. In complete, the European blue financial system represents 5 million jobs and greater than 250 billion euros of annual added worth.

But this very important ecosystem vacillates. Climate change, air pollution, overexploitation of marine sources: threats are multiplying. “We are witnessing a negative trend that must be approached urgently, alert Costas Kadis, European peach and oceans commissioner. The fragmentation of policies has considerably reduced the impact of our actions. »»

Faced with this emergency, the pact deploys an architecture in six pillars. First, the protection and restoration of ocean health. The EU will encourage its Member States to create protected marine areas and revise its directives on marine strategy and maritime spatial planning.

Second pillar: boost the competitiveness of the sustainable blue economy. On the menu, an industrial maritime strategy, a European port strategy and a 2040 vision for fishing and aquaculture. “We may also introduce a blue generational renewal technique to draw younger professionals,” said the Cypriot Commissioner.

The size of the boats, blocked in Brussels

The size of the boats, supervised at European level, must be enlarged to allow the energy transition of the fleet. Indeed, less carbon technologies require more space on board than diesel, and more slender ships would allow better energy efficiency.

But blockages internal to the European machinery prevent remedy. “We name for our needs a focused modification of the texts of the frequent fishing coverage which at the moment block the modernization of the fleet,” says the MEP LR Isabelle Le Callennec, PPE rapporteur on the European Ocean Pact. While keeping a framework and limits to avoid overfishing, this is the role of quotas, we ask the commission to review in depth the indicators that measure the capacity and the impact of fishing, in particular the gauge, the power and the length of the ships, in order to take into account the requirements in terms of safety, living space on board, and the requirements linked to the technologies of energy transition. It is also crucial to ensure the generational renewal of the fishing sector. How to attract young people to fishing if ships over 30 years old can not be modernized or renewed? »»

Europe, a model for the planet?

The third component targets coastal and island communities, “driving pressure of an enduring blue financial system”, according to Kadis. A strategy dedicated to their development and their resilience will be presented, accompanied by a new approach for the islands and the UlTraperipheral regions.

The last three pillars embrace oceanic research (with the creation of a “European digital twin of the ocean” by 2030), maritime security (European drone fleet, demining of European waters) and the establishment of international ocean diplomacy to convince third states to follow Europe in this direction. Because European ambition largely exceeds its borders. “Our goal is to current to the remainder of the world the ocean pact as a mannequin of sustainable administration of our ocean”, claims Costas Kadis.

Leadership that Brussels intends to exercise in particular in the fight against illegal fishing, with the compulsory digital certification of captures in January 2026. Currently, fishing products entering the European market must be accompanied by a paper certificate attesting to their legality. The so -called Catch system digitizes this process: each batch of fish will have a “digital identification card” tracing its route from capture to sale. Illegal fishing represents between $ 15.5 and $ 36.4 billion in annual losses depending on estimates. It distorts competition, deplets stocks and sometimes finances forced work. The EU, the world’s leading importer of seafood, wants to use its market as a lever to oust this pirate practice.

Pact flaws

Remains the budget equation. Asked about the necessary means in the next multi-year European budget (2028-2035), Costas Kadis Botte in touch: “I cannot tell you what the form of the next CFP will be. He relies on a cocktail of public and private funding, with an increased role in the European Investment Bank (BEI). Many EU future policies are based on EIB loans. Maybe a little too much for this Bank of Member States …

This European budgetary prudence illustrates the broader challenge that the pact represents. Like the energy transition, ocean governance will require massive investments and changes in economic models that all states are not ready to consent.

Environmental NGOs, on the other hand, denounce a pact which “doesn’t supply concrete actions which assault essentially the most urgent threats” for marine biodiversity. Despite a consultation of 140 organizations that produced a “blue manifesto”, the final document carefully avoids the thorny background trawling in the protected sea areas.

However, the figures are overwhelming: 60 % of European protected marine areas continue to be challed, sometimes more intensively than surrounding waters. More than 250,000 European citizens have signed a petition demanding the ban on this destructive practice in areas supposed to be protected. IFREMER scientists confirm it: “70 to 94 % of marine and coastal habitats of group curiosity have been assessed as being in an unfavorable state”, suggesting that “present laws are both inadequate or insufficiently utilized”.

The French Marine Research Institute, however, tempers these criticisms with a more nuanced analysis. “All the protected maritime areas (AMP) on the one hand, and all of the tray areas however, can’t be placed on the identical degree,” explain scientists from Ifremer in a collective note. Chaluling represents “about half of hexagonal fishing in quantity and worth”, and a “brutal cease will surely have important financial and social penalties”.

Even more problematic: the risk of carrying out effort to other areas. “Do not anticipate or management the postponement of the AMP effort to different areas may have important ecological penalties,” warn researchers. A poorly planned ban could move the problem without solving it or even worsen it.

The American diplomatic vacuum from Trump

The diplomatic exercise of Nice is all the more crucial since the United States, traditionally leaders in oceanic matters, have greatly withdrawn from the multilateral scene under the leadership of the second Trump administration. Washington did not send any representative to the Our Ocean 2025 conference in South Korea – an event, however, initially created by the US State Department. American delegations to regional peaches management organizations have also been drastically reduced.

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The kangaroo of the day

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This American absence is carrying a heavy paralysis. Although holders of the second unique world financial space, the United States leaves a void that Brussels may fill with its ocean pact. “During the session train, we acquired loads of suggestions from outdoors the European Union. This implies that the remainder of the world appears to be like at us, “said Costas Kadis, aware that Europe can now establish itself as the global ocean governance referent.

Read too Sylvia Earle, the pioneer of the depthsThat said, convincing international partners to follow up on the European step remains a colossal challenge, especially since geopolitical tensions complicate multilateral cooperation. An issue all the more difficult since the ocean, a common good of humanity, largely escapes national sovereignties. By 2027, the Commission will present an “ocean act” to present a legislative framework to those ambitions. But the chance stays that this pact, just like the marine motion plan of 2023 earlier than him, stays solely a paper technique with out actual constraints.