At the Our Ocean conference in Panama City on Thursday 2 March, the EU confirmed its strong commitment to international ocean governance by announcing 39 commitments for action for the year 2023.
These actions will be funded by €816.5 million of European funds.
The pledges cover all themes: marine protected areas (MPAs), marine pollution, climate change, sustainable fisheries, sustainable blue economies and maritime security. In addition to these commitments, the EU is now joining the Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing Action Alliance.
In particular, the EU provides for:
- €320 million for ocean research to protect marine biodiversity and address the impacts of climate change on the ocean;
- €12 million to facilitate access to Copernicus data and products through a Copernicus Regional Centre for Latin America and the Caribbean, operated by Panama;
- the EU will also launch Sentinel-1C (€250 million) for real-time observation of icebergs and ice melt in the Arctic;
- €126 million to protect biodiversity and combat climate change in Benin, Guyana and Tanzania;
- €24 million (over the period 2022-2023) through voluntary contributions under the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF), for actions in support of regional fisheries management organisations and relevant international agreements in the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic and Antarctic Oceans, as well as the Mediterranean and Black Seas;
- €1 million for the World Trade Organization (WTO) funding mechanism on fisheries subsidies. The aim is to help developing countries, through technical assistance and capacity building, to implement the disciplines of the WTO agreement on harmful fisheries subsidies.
List of EU commitments: https://aeur.eu/f/5lp (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)