BRUSSELS—The European Union will Thursday unveil a new roadmap on marine conservation—addressing climate and pollution threats to biodiversity as well as challenges for coastal livelihoods —ahead of a UN summit on preserving the world’s seas.
The 27-nation bloc wants to position itself as a leader in the field and will formally launch the “European Ocean Pact” at next week’s conference in the French city of Nice.
But a draft leaked last month was given short shrift by a coalition of environmental groups including Surfrider, WWF, ClientEarth and Oceana—who saw it as largely rehashing old measures.
“While the document outlines steps towards better enforcement of existing laws,” they said in a joint statement, “concrete actions to address the most pressing threats to marine life and biodiversity are currently lacking.”
The draft pact acknowledges the need to boost funding to safeguard the oceans, but is light on hard commitments.
Topping the list of measures environmentalists would like to see is an immediate ban on bottom trawling in protected areas—the subject of a string of court cases —as well as broader steps to align fishing practices with marine protection.
On the European Commission front, officials have pushed back at the criticism —indicating the leaked document was an interim draft and suggested stronger measures to come.
Forty percent of Europeans live within 50 kilometers of the coast—though paradoxically the bloc is dependent on imports for 70 of the aquatic food it consumes, according to EU data cited in the draft.
Nevertheless, the so-called “blue economy” linked to the sea supports more than five million jobs and contributes more than 250 billion euros ($285 billion) to the bloc’s gross domestic product.
