Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

Areas beyond national jurisdiction cover nearly two thirds of earth’s oceans. They belong to everyone and no one in particular. Our oceans are the earth’s largest ecosystem and they are suffering from accelerated biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, due, in particular, to the impact of climate change on marine ecosystems, such as warming and ocean deoxygenation, and ocean acidification, unsustainable use and exploitation of the oceans and pollution, such as plastic pollution.

The agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (the Agreement), adopted in June 2023, promotes the conservation and sustainable use of this ecosystem and its biodiversity, which is a benefit to the planet’s biosphere, and to all of earth’s inhabitants. The landmark treaty reflects a multilateral consensus on the need to address the cumulative pressures on the high seas through science-based, inclusive, and precautionary governance and to foster scientific research and facilitate collaboration, capacity building and development for scientists. The European Union played a leading and ambitious role in the negotiation and adoption of the Agreement.

The rapporteur supports a swift and effective implementation of the Agreement into Union Law through the proposed Directive on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (the Directive).

The rapporteur endorses the approach taken to restrict the proposal to the transposition of the EU’s international obligations under the Agreement and agrees with the Commission that there was no choice to be made between alternative policy options.

To avoid delay in the implementation of the Agreement’s requirements for the Union and its Member States, and to uphold the Union’s credibility as a global actor in ocean governance, a timely transposition is essential. Furthermore, a swift transposition is paramount to protecting high seas biodiversity, addressing accelerating ecosystem degradation and halting marine biodiversity loss. Delays or deviations from the text of the Agreement risk weakening the EU’s voice in shaping the operationalisation of the Agreement and in asserting its global environmental leadership.

The rapporteur therefore seeks to align the report as close as possible with the text and the intent of the Agreement, thereby ensuring that its language is in line with the Agreement, by avoiding reinterpretations that could undermine legal clarity, delay implementation, or introduce inconsistencies with other international obligations.

Where the Agreement defines key terms and actions, these should be incorporated verbatim or by explicit cross-reference into the Directive, unless there is a compelling reason to divert. This is particularly important given that the Agreement creates obligations that will be subject to international oversight and dispute settlement mechanisms (Part IX of the Agreement).

This draft report underlines in particular the importance of:

• clarifying the scope of the Directive to fully reflect the range of activities, actors, and obligations covered under the Agreement, notably in relation to environmental impact assessments and area-based management tools;

• establishing clear rules for compliance and enforcement that reflect both the terminology and the purpose of the Agreement; and

• avoiding duplication of existing EU procedures where they already fulfil the requirements of the Agreement (e.g. under Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive and the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive), while ensuring conformity of procedures with the conditions under the Agreement.

In sum, this draft report reflects the rapporteur’s determination to enable the Union to swiftly implement and operationalise the Agreement as a direct translation of its international commitments and ambitions.