On Thursday 23 April, the European Commission launched a public consultation (https://aeur.eu/f/lnr ) aimed at contributing to the drafting of the European Ocean Act, a key legislative proposal of the ‘European Ocean Pact’.
The consultation is open until 16 July. This follows a call for evidence launched in January.
The European Ocean Act aims to: - support the six priorities of the European Ocean Pact; - simplify EU ocean governance by reducing bureaucracy and reporting obligations; - and, by making the rules more effective, group together the EU’s ocean-related objectives to make them easier to identify; - modernise maritime spatial planning, strengthening the maritime basin approach and improving cross-sectoral coordination at national level; - create a legal basis for OceanEye, the European ocean observation initiative; - align with the revision of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.
The Commission plans to adopt the legislative proposal by the end of 2026, in line with its work programme for that year. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)