18/04/2024 Session
The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) today said that our planet’s seas and oceans are “complex ecosystems that are vital for sustaining biodiversity and the livelihood of humans, as well as for regulating the global climate” and added that they could be our “allies” in mitigating the triple crisis and the associated threats of social, economic and political nature.
Adopting a resolution based on a report by Yuliia Ovchynnykova (Ukraine, ALDE), the Assembly called on member States to prioritise efforts to safeguard marine ecosystems in line with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 14, which focuses on conserving and sustainably using oceans, seas, and marine resources.
Emphasising the human dimension of maritime activities, the Assembly urged the broader application of European standards to elevate the protection of human rights in marine governance. The adoption of major international treaties such as the United Nations High Seas Treaty is welcomed as a significant step towards addressing the fragmented governance of international waters.
In regions affected by war, such as the Black Sea in Ukraine, PACE invited member States to co-ordinate their efforts and to better handle the environmental consequences of the war. The Assembly urged States to “collect and analyse information on mines and unexploded ordnance in the Black Sea, water pollution levels and other effects of war on animal and sea life and on biodiversity.”
Finally, the Assembly invited EU member States “to protect and restore 30% of the European Union’s marine areas by 2030 by expanding MPAs with the goal of stopping trawling in those areas” and called on the non-EU countries “to draw on those measures to improve their domestic legislation”.