European Ocean Act: CNRS contribution to the future European legislation on the oceans

Since the third United Nations Ocean Conference held in Nice in June 2025, the ocean has emerged as a central issue in international negotiations. In the lead up to this major diplomatic milestone, the CNRS and Ifremer co organised the One Ocean Science Congress, bringing together nearly 2,000 scientists from around the world to establish a robust scientific foundation for the forthcoming discussions. This sequence, closely linking science and diplomacy, found its political expression at the Conference when the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced the European Ocean Pact. 

Building a New Legal Framework

Building on the Pact, the Commission is now preparing the European Ocean Act, its flagship legislative initiative, currently subject to public consultation and accompanied by an impact assessment. The proposed Act seeks to modernise maritime spatial planning, strengthen coherence across sectoral policies including energy, biodiversity, fisheries, transport and security, and establish a legal basis for an integrated European governance framework for ocean observation. It is closely linked to the revision of the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive, which organises the spatial distribution of activities at sea in order to reconcile economic uses with ecosystem protection, and to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, which requires Member States to achieve or maintain good environmental status of European marine waters. The proposal also aims to simplify and streamline monitoring and reporting obligations through standardised digital data formats and improved interoperability of existing systems.

Science for Decision-Making

It is in this context that the CNRS has responded to the Commission’s consultation on the future European Ocean Act. Through its commitment to Science for Policy1 , the organization considers that the effectiveness of such a legislative framework will depend closely on its ability to rely on robust and up-to-date scientific knowledge. Maritime spatial planning, the integration of climate and environmental objectives, and the structuring of a European ocean observation system cannot be fully effective without a structured dialogue between knowledge production and public decision-making. In this respect, the organisation aligns itself with a science for policy approach, aimed at informing European action through scientific expertise and forward-looking analysis.

In its contribution, the CNRS calls for the Ocean Act to place marine and coastal socio ecosystems at the core of the new framework, fully taking into account land sea interactions, climate biodiversity interconnections and the cumulative impacts of human activities on ecosystems and coastal communities. Failing this, the regulatory framework risks fragmenting sectoral policies, underestimating the cumulative impacts of uses, and limiting the capacity to anticipate climate and ecological changes. It recommends strengthening the climate smart dimension of maritime spatial planning, promoting integrated approaches at sea basin level, and establishing a robust governance framework for the European Ocean Observation System based on long term observations, European research infrastructures and open, traceable and harmonised data. The governance and architecture of ocean observation are also the subject of a specific consultation under the European Ocean Observation Initiative, to which the CNRS will likewise contribute.

• 1