Brussels, 24 April 2025
Today, the EU Commission is presenting a proposal to integrate the landmark international Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction’ (BBNJ) Agreement, which aims to protect the ocean, tackle environmental degradation, fight climate change, and curb biodiversity loss, into EU law. This will also help the Member States with the implementation in their national systems.
Signed by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on behalf of the European Union in September 2023, this Agreement – also known as the Treaty of the High Seas – will help reach the goals and targets set under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. This includes protecting at least 30% of the ocean by 2030 and increasing benefit sharing from genetic resources and digital sequence information.
While EU law is already largely aligned with significant parts of the BBNJ, the proposed directive will help Member States implement all parts of the Agreement. The directive focuses on the following provisions of the BBNJ Agreement, while keeping the regulatory burden to a minimum:
- Large-scale marine protected areas will be established in international waters to conserve marine life.
- Before approving activities in international waters, Member States will need to evaluate their potential impact on the marine environment (through Environmental impact assessments). This evaluation process should ensure transparency, accountability, broad public participation and fair conditions for all parties involved, and avoid undue burden.
- EU researchers, particularly those collaborating across borders on marine genetic resources, will be assisted by facilitating the sharing of genetic resources. This will ensure fair distribution of benefits from marine genetic resources and digital sequence information, in line with the COP16 Cali Fund.
Today’s proposed directive will promote good governance and ocean sustainability, in line with the upcoming European Ocean Pact.
It will also simplify and harmonise administrative processes and ensure the level playing field in the EU.
Next steps
The proposal to integrate the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction’ Agreement into EU law will now be discussed by the European Parliament and the Council.
The BBNJ Agreement will enter into force 120 days after 60 countries have ratified and submitted their ratification documents. The EU is committed to ratifying the BBNJ Agreement before the UN Ocean Conference, in Nice, in June 2025.
The directive proposed today will need to be in place before the BBNJ agreement takes effect.
Background
Areas beyond national jurisdiction make up nearly two-thirds of the world’s ocean, including the high seas and the seabed. These areas are rich in marine resources and biodiversity, providing essential ecological, economic, social, health, cultural, scientific and food-security benefits. However, they are under mounting pressure from pollution, overexploitation, climate change and decreasing biodiversity, and therefore in need of urgent protection.
In response to these challenges 89 countries signed the ‘Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction’ treaty in 2023.
The BBNJ Agreement will further implement existing principles of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to achieve a more holistic and sustainable management of activities carried out in the high seas. Key principles include cooperation, protection of the marine environment and conducting prior impact assessments. The new agreement updates UNCLOS to address current challenges and supports the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, in particular Sustainable Development Goal 14 (‘Life Below Water’).
More information
- Link to Directive
- Commission website on the high ambition coalition and the BBNJ negotiations ‘Protecting the ocean, time for action’
Quote(s)
I welcome this proposal, as it confirms that ocean protection is a priority for the EU and it reaffirms our commitment to the efficient implementation of the BBNJ Agreement. This historic agreement is ambitious, fair and equitable and a key milestone for the protection of our ocean.
Costas Kadis, Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans
With this proposal, we are ensuring all EU countries work together to implement the High Seas Treaty, demonstrating our real commitment to protecting biodiversity. Following the successful biodiversity talks at COP16, we are taking concrete steps to follow through on our international commitments. Our ocean needs to be protected, and we are showing today that this can be done in a simplified, consistent and straightforward way.
Jessika Roswall, Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy
Source – EU Commission
Intergovernmental Conference on an international legally binding instrument 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 (General Assembly resolution 72/249)
In its resolution 72/249 of 24 December 2017, the General Assembly decided to convene an Intergovernmental Conference, under the auspices of the United Nations, to consider the recommendations of the Preparatory Committee established by resolution 69/292 of 19 June 2015 on the elements and to elaborate the text of an international legally binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, with a view to developing the instrument as soon as possible.
In accordance with resolution 72/249, the Conference held a three-day organizational meeting in New York, from 16 to 18 April 2018, to discuss organizational matters, including the process for the preparation of the zero draft of the instrument.
The first session was convened from 4 to 17 September 2018, the second session from 25 March to 5 April 2019 and the third session from 19 to 30 August 2019. The fourth session, which was postponed by decisions 74/543 and 75/570 owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, was convened from 7 to 18 March 2022. A fifth session of the Conference was convened from 15 to 26 August 2022 pursuant to General Assembly decision 76/564 (available as A/76/L.46). On the last day of that session, the Conference, in considering the way forward, decided to suspend the fifth session and resume it at a later date to be determined. Pursuant to resolution 77/248 of the General Assembly, the resumed fifth session of the Intergovernmental Conference met from 20 February to 3 March 2023. At the end of that meeting, the Conference decided to resume at a later date with a view to adopting the agreement. In this connection, the General Assembly, in its decision 77/556 of 18 April 2023 (currently available as document A/77/L.62), requested the Secretary-General to convene a further resumed fifth session of the conference on 19 and 20 June 2023, tentatively, or on a date to be determined in consultation with the President of the conference. Accordingly, the further resumed fifth session was held at UN Headquarters in New York on 19 and 20 June 2023. On 19 June 2023, the Conference adopted, by consensus, 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 (A/CONF.232/2023/4). The Conference was closed on 20 June 2023.
Note: This website is no longer being updated. For information on the current developments concerning the BBNJ Agreement, please visit the new website of the Agreement: https://www.un.org/bbnjagreement/en
Source – United Nations