The European Union recently celebrated Ocean Week, which included debates, exhibitions, and other events in Brussels to celebrate Europe’s seas and determine the best path forward for protecting them.
During the event 140 organizations delivered a united call to the bloc’s leaders, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leye and newly appointed European Commissioner-designate for Fisheries and Oceans Costas Kadis, urging them to implement a series of new measures that stop the region’s waters and coastlines from being environmentally “pushed to the brink.”
The six NGOs that led the call – Oceana, Seas At Risk, Surfrider Foundation Europe, BirdLife Europe and Central Asia, ClientEarth, and the World Wildlife Fund – outlined plans for an E.U.-backed “Blue Manifesto” that would provide a step-by-step roadmap advocating for ocean health to be at the heart of E.U. conservation decision-making.
President von der Leye, who was reappointed to a new term in June, has seemed receptive to such pleas, even pledging to create a European Ocean Pact in July that, according to Oceana Europe Deputy Vice President Vera Coelho, shows recognition at the highest E.U. political level of the need for a coherent ocean protection strategy.
The NGOs said the announcement of the pact marks a step in the right direction, but aligning the pact with the policy roadmap outlined in the Blue Manifesto will be crucial to ensuring meaningful, long-term ocean protection, as will proper funding to support it.
“It is our firm opinion that [the pact] must provide an …
