The EU Parliament has voted in favour of the EU ratification of the UN’s Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdictions (BBNJ) treaty during a plenary on Wednesday, paving the way for member states to move their national processes along swiftly.
The decision will be formally adopted by the Council, before the EU will deposit its instrument of ratification at the UN – a document that formally acknowledges the acceptance of the treaty.
This document will not count as ratification by itself, but the move represents a step forward in incentivising each EU member state to make the law officially valid.
The EU categorised the BBNJ as a mixed agreement, which means it must be ratified at both the EU and member state levels.
“The High Seas Alliance applauds the EU for taking this key step in the race for ratification today,” Rebecca Hubbard, director of the alliance, said in a statement.
“This progress provides a big boost to EU countries to accelerate the ratification of this important treaty at a member state level, and sends an important signal to the rest of the world that the EU is serious about prioritising greater ocean protection with international law as a matter of urgency.”
Also known as the high seas treaty, the UN agreement seeks to conserve marine life in areas beyond countries’ boundaries, including the high seas and the seabed.
In EU member states ratification is critical to ensure that the treaty obtains the 60 ratifications required for it to come into force.
National ratification can be a long process as several countries need to modify their legislation to align with a new treaty’s provisions, with some requiring parliamentary approval.
So far, 89 countries have shown their commitments to ratifying the BBNJ, though only four have formally done so – Palau, Chile, Belize, and Seychelles. No EU member state has finalised its ratification process yet.
Once fully ratified, the BBNJ will allow the establishment of marine protected areas in the high seas beyond national jurisdictions in a bid to safeguard the ocean from human pressures, preserve biodiversity, and achieve the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) target of protecting at least 30% of the seas by 2030.
The treaty addresses the gap in ocean protection, as only about 3% of the oceans are entirely protected, according to the Marine Conservation Institute.
During the Our Ocean Conference in Athens, Greece last week, the EU joined 13 other countries in calling on all states to prioritise the ratification of the UN treaty to protect the world’s oceans.
The EU Commissioner for Environment, Oceans, and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevicius, also announced during the summit that the bloc would put €3.5 billion towards 40 ocean-related initiatives this year, its highest allocation since the conference started in 2014.
By Giada Ferraglioni – giada@carbon-pulse.com
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