The EU Council of Ministers adopted without debate on Tuesday 22 February the list of voluntary commitments of the European Union for the ‘Our Ocean’ conference to be held in Palau on 13-14 April 2022.
In particular, the European Union will announce that, through the Horizon Europe programme, the European Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund, Invest EU and other EU programmes, it will provide around €500 million in seed funding over the period 2021-2023 for the ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030’ mission.
This mission aims to contribute to the EU’s goals of “protecting 30% of the EU Member States sea area as well as restoring marine eco-systems and 25,000 km of free flowing rivers, prevent and eliminate pollution by reducing plastic litter at sea, nutrient losses and use of chemical pesticides by 50% and make the blue economy climate-neutral and circular with net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases” according to the text.
It also announces a contribution of €55.17 million over two years to strengthen marine environmental monitoring and monitoring of climate change, through its satellite-monitoring programme Copernicus. Other areas are covered by this conference (pollution, marine protected areas, fisheries, security...)
Link to this list of commitments: https://aeur.eu/f/gr (in French) (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)