The European Commission will propose a sweeping new law to manage the use of Europe’s oceans, in a surprise announcement that was broad in scope but light on detail and opens the way for years of lobbying over how to treat EU marine resources.
An earlier draft of the European Ocean Pact, obtained by POLITICO, did not mention the “Ocean Act,” and Thursday’s announcement of concrete legislation caught many groups by surprise.
The “Ocean Act,” announced Thursday by EU Oceans Commissioner Costas Kadis, will update the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive, which governs the economic use of EU waters. The new law would be introduced by 2027.
But Kadis said the new act would go well beyond the scope of the MSPD, providing a framework to implement the wide-ranging goals of the new European Ocean Pact, a policy promise of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s second term.
