The European Union has announced €816.5 million worth of commitments for the year 2023 to ensure a secure, clean, and sustainably managed ocean. The announcement was made last Thursday, March 2nd at the Our Ocean Conference 2023 in Panama, and involves one of the biggest amounts ever announced by the EU for the protection of the ocean since the start of these annual conferences in 2014.
The 39 new commitments for action cover all themes of the event: Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), marine pollution, climate change, sustainable fisheries, sustainable blue economies, and maritime security.
The funds will be allocated as follows:
In parallel, the EU has also materialised its incorporation into the Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (IUUF) Action Alliance, which works to support the effective regulation and sustainable management of fisheries in all parts of the ocean.
Horizon Europe, the main funding programme of the EU, for research and innovation projects, dedicates one of its five missions to ‘Restore Our Ocean and Waters’, which aims at the restoration and protection of the ocean and waters by the year 2030 through R&D, citizen engagement and blue investments. €87.7 million are available under its 2023 call for proposals, which closes on September 20th.
Additional €15 million are being allocated this year to a joint call with other two HE missions dedicated to ‘Climate Adaptation’ and a ‘Soil Deal for Europe’, with the goal of increasing landscape water retention capacity at the regional scale. The call will also remain open until September 20th.
Furthermore, €90 million are available for the 2023 call of ‘Land, ocean and water for climate action’ under Horizon Europe’s Cluster 6 ‘Food, bioeconomy, natural resources, agriculture and environment’. This call, which closes on April 12th, addresses research and innovation projects assessing the impacts of climate change on marine environments, as well as lands, natural resources, agriculture, and food systems.
This adds to the €50 million that are being allocated in 2023 for the first joint transnational call of the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership (SBEP), a Horizon Europe co-funded partnership that supports transnational R&D projects aimed at achieving a sustainable blue economy in the EU, which is an essential driver for the objectives of the European Green Deal. For this first call, which closes on April 14th, the partnership is pooling national and regional financial resources from 23 different countries, with financial support from the European Commission.
Openings and deadlines for all Horizon Europe calls over the next two years can be found in the Horizon Europe 2023-2024 calendar, available on our website.
Further funds are available under other EU funding programmes for projects addressing the protection of the oceans and the sustainable blue economy. Some examples are the LIFE, Interreg Atlantic Area, and BlueInvest programmes, as well as the European Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF).
After being under discussion for over a decade, the United Nations Member States have finally reached an agreement for a new Treaty of the High Seas, which aims at the protection of the ocean by tackling environmental degradation, fighting climate change, and preventing marine biodiversity loss, ensuring sustainable use of resources.
Negotiations have gone on for five rounds and were finalised last Sunday, March 5th at the Intergovernmental Conference in New York. The treaty will now be vetted by layers and translated into all six United Nations’ official languages before it can officially be adopted.
As leaders of the High Ambition Coalition on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ), the EU and its Member States have played a key role in reaching the agreement. The coalition, which was launched at the One Ocean Summit 2022, gathers 52 countries committed to achieving ambitious actions for the protection of the ocean at the highest political level.
Now that the new treaty has been reached, the EU will work to ensure its fast legal adoption and to help developing countries prepare for its implementation. To this end, it has pledged €40 million as part of a Global Ocean Programme and has invited members of the High Ambition Coalition to do the same within their capabilities.
The European Commission has also announced that a new EU Maritime Security Strategy will be adopted to ensure the peaceful use of the seas and safeguard the maritime domain against new threats. The action plan to implement this strategy has also been updated, reinforcing the wide range of civilian and military tools that the EU has at its disposal to promote maritime security.
The EU economy depends greatly on a safe and secure ocean, since over 80% of global trade is seaborne and about two-thirds of the world’s oil and gas is either extracted at sea or transported by sea. Furthermore, up to 99% of global data flows are transmitted through undersea cables. Maritime security is also key to ensuring a sustainable blue economy.
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