The Ocean Pact is a comprehensive strategy to better protect the ocean, promote a thriving blue economy and support the well-being of people living in coastal areas.
Why the ocean matters
The ocean is the foundation of life on Earth and provides a wide range of resources, benefits and services. The ocean is critical for food security, energy production, and data. It is crucial for the prosperity and competitiveness of the EU blue economy.
With the world’s largest collective maritime area, about 70,000 km coastline and 40% of its population living within 50 km of the sea, the EU has a critical interest in maritime matters.
One ocean, one strategy
The European Ocean Pact brings together the European Union's policies and actions related to the ocean and creates a unified and coordinated plan for managing the ocean.
It is built around six priorities
- Protecting and restoring ocean health
- Boosting the competitiveness of the EU sustainable blue economy
- Supporting coastal and island communities, and outermost regions
- Advancing ocean research, knowledge, skills and innovation
- Enhancing maritime security and defence
- Strengthening EU ocean diplomacy and international ocean governance
Protecting and restoring ocean health
Pressures on the ocean harm marine ecosystems and biodiversity, affect coastal communities, fisheries and other sea-based activities.
To support Member States to restore degraded coastal and marine habitats, the European Ocean Pact proposes to
- evaluate and revise the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive
- encourage Member States to establish and manage marine protected areas
- create European blue carbon reserves
Boosting the competitiveness of the EU sustainable blue economy
The ocean is crucial for sectors such as fisheries, aquaculture, shipping, tourism and energy. The EU must enhance its competitiveness and accelerate the transition across traditional and emerging blue economy sectors, focusing in particular on reducing CO2 emissions and scaling up innovation.
The European Ocean Pact proposes to
- evaluate the common fisheries policy (CFP)
- develop a vision 2040 for fisheries and aquaculture
- boost the EU’s maritime industry with a new industrial maritime strategy and an EU ports strategy
- launch a sustainable tourism strategy
- develop a blue generational renewal strategy to encourage young professionals to join the sectors
Supporting coastal, island communities and outermost regions
Coastal communities are the driving force behind a sustainable and competitive blue economy. They provide Europeans with healthy and sustainable food, and with clean and affordable marine renewable energy. Ensuring the future of these communities is therefore crucial.
The European Ocean Pact proposes to
- present a dedicated strategy for the development and resilience of EU coastal communities
- consult stakeholders on a new strategy for EU islands
- update the strategy for outermost regions
Advancing ocean research, knowledge, skills and innovation
It is important to maintain the EU as a global ocean leader in ocean science, technology and data. The ambition is to improve our knowledge on the ocean and make this knowledge readily available to citizens, entrepreneurs, scientists and policy-makers. This will help design the most effective ways to restore marine and coastal habitats, support a sustainable blue economy, mitigate and adapt to climate change.
In this domain, the European Ocean Pact proposes to
- launch an EU ocean observation initiative. This initiative will be underpinned by an ocean research and innovation strategy
- operationalise the European Digital Twin of the Ocean - a digital representation of the ocean and its multiple components - by 2030.
- establish an EU Ocean Youth and Intergenerational Ambassador Network to raise awareness on the importance of the ocean
Enhancing maritime security and defence
The growing complexity of maritime threats, including attacks on underwater infrastructure, cyber threats, risks posed by the shadow fleet, and strategic competition over maritime spaces, demands a coordinated response. The Commission will strengthen EU coast guard and naval cooperation and maritime border security.
To ensure safe and secure seas, the European Ocean Pact proposes to develop
- a comprehensive Unexploded ordnance (UXO) strategy to remove unexploded ordnance from European waters, starting in the Baltic and North Seas.
- deeper cooperation between the EU, its Arctic Member states and like-minded Arctic State
- a pilot for a European (UxV) unmanned drone fleet, for real-time monitoring of maritime activities, strengthening the EU’s maritime surveillance capabilities
- and strengthen cooperation in upcoming new strategic and comprehensive partnerships with countries in North-Africa and the Middle East.
Strengthening EU ocean diplomacy and international ocean governance
The EU will strengthen its ocean diplomacy to protect the ocean, promote EU interests and values, and advance multilateral cooperation. This will help create a fairer international playing field, benefiting both EU fisheries and global sustainability.
Under this strategic priority, the European Ocean Pact proposes to
- develop a strategic approach to EU fisheries external action, including a new generation of sustainable fisheries partnership agreements
- step up the fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing through the mandatory implementation of IT CATCH, the digitalisation of the IUU catch certification scheme, as of January 2026. This will help to prevent IUU fishery products from entering the EU market.
- encourage the swift ratification and implementation of theBiodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement and support its implementation in developing countries through the €40 million contribution to the Global Ocean Programme
- amplify the work to conclude an ambitious Plastics Treaty to curb ocean pollution
- negotiate the designation of three vast marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean to conserve Antarctica’s unique and pristine marine ecosystems and biodiversity
- support the entry into force and implementation of phase 1 of World Trade Organisation agreement on banning harmful fisheries subsidies and conclude negotiations of phase 2
- Pilot an International Platform for Ocean Sustainability (IPOS)
Reaching our targets
- To achieve the Ocean Pact’s targets, the Commission will present an Ocean Act by 2027. This Pact will establish a single framework to facilitate the implementation of the Pact’s key objectives, while cutting red tape. It will be based on a revised Maritime Spatial Planning Directive, which will enhance cross-sectoral coordination and sea basin management.
- The Commission will also set up a high-level Ocean Board, bringing together representatives from various ocean-related sectors, to guide the Ocean Pact’s implementation, and launch an EU Ocean Pact dashboard, providing a public, transparent and centralised platform to track progress towards its objectives.