On 30 June, the European Commission adopted a proposal to sign, on behalf of the European Union, the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (‘BBNJ Agreement’).
The Intergovernmental Conference for the creation of an international legally binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction adopted the text of this agreement on 19 June (see EUROPE 13205/15).
The proposal’s objective is to obtain authorisation from the Council of the European Union for the European Commission to sign the United Nations agreement in question on behalf of the European Union (https://aeur.eu/f/7wh ). A signing ceremony for this agreement will take place on 20 September 2023 during the United Nations General Assembly.
The BBNJ Treaty set up a procedure to create large-scale marine protected areas on the high seas. It facilitates the achievement of the target of effectively conserving and managing 30% of land and sea by 2030, which was agreed in December 2022 in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Link to the Commission proposal: https://aeur.eu/f/7vv (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)