Mr. President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

The Candidate Countries Montenegro*, Serbia^*, Albania^*, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina^* and Georgia, align themselves with this statement.

Mr. President,

The European Union and its Member States are pleased to intervene in this debate at the adoption of these two important resolutions.

We would like to start by joining other delegations in celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention and in expressing our gratitude to the coordinators of these resolutions, Ms. Natalie Morris Sharma and Mr. Andreas Motzfeldt Kravik, for the excellent stewardship demonstrated once again this year. We also want to express our appreciation to the Secretariat and in particular to the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea for their professionalism and constant support to delegations during the consultations, which in the case of the Omnibus Law of the Sea resolution extended well into the night on the final day. Their commitment and professionalism are commendable.

Mr. President,

The European Union and its Member States remain strongly committed Parties to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Convention has 170 Parties and is the fundamental pillar for ocean governance. It sets out the universal and unified legal framework within which ALL activities in oceans and seas must be carried out.

As such, the Convention is rightly recognised as the constitution of the ocean. Its provisions reflect customary international law and are thus binding on all States, irrespective of whether they have acceded to the Convention or not. By establishing the legal order for seas and oceans, the Convention contributes to sustainable development as well as to the peace, security, cooperation and friendly relations among all nations.

It is therefore imperative that the freedoms enjoyed under the Convention by all States, including landlocked States, are respected. These include, in particular, the freedoms of navigation and overflight and of the laying of submarine cables and pipelines, as well as the right of innocent passage. Similarly, it is also imperative that the sovereignty and sovereign rights of coastal States over their maritime zones, as established under the Convention, are respected, including those generated by islands, and that all States act in good faith and with due regard for the rights, duties and freedoms of other States under the Convention. All members of the international community must abide by the fundamental principles and rules of the law of the sea and should refrain from any actions undermining regional stability and security.

Mr. President,

The European Union and its Member States remain strongly committed to the Convention’s implementing agreements. In addition to the UN Fish Stocks Agreement and the Agreement relating to the Implementation of Part XI, we are delighted that a third implementing agreement was adopted by consensus last year: the Agreement under the Convention on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction.

The European Union and its Member States were among the first Signatories of the BBNJ Agreement and we are strongly committed to the swift ratification and effective implementation, and urge all States to do the same. The European Union and its Member Sates aim to ratify the Agreement prior to the United Nations Ocean Conference that will take place in June 2025. We also call on all States to sign and ratify the BBNJ Agreement as early as possible, and we call on all developed countries to support developing countries in the ratification and future implementation of the Agreement. We welcome the 105 signatories so far, as well as the ratifications by 15 Parties. Each ratification is a step closer to the entry into force of the Agreement, which the European Union and its Member States look forward to.

The European Union and its Member States also welcome the decision by the General Assembly to convene the first and second sessions of the Preparatory Commission for the entry into Force of the BBNJ Agreement from 14 to 25 April and from 18 to 29 August 2025, respectively, and will contribute to their success.

Mr. President,

The European Union and its Member States remain very concerned by the declining health of our ocean. The triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution continues to have dramatic consequences. Once again, global ocean surface temperatures reached record highs this year, putting additional pressures on the marine environment that is already facing severe threats from human activities. These include overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, plastics and microplastics pollution, excessive nutrients, and anthropogenic underwater noise. Once again, concentration levels of greenhouse gasses reached new heights. These gasses interact strongly with the ocean and are closely linked to human activities, and fuel climate change and ocean acidification.

It is imperative that we continue addressing these threats with the greatest possible urgency, as part of our wider efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular SDG 14. As we all prepare for the third UN Ocean Conference in 2025, which will be co-hosted by France and Costa Rica, we must collectively strive to achieve results with action-oriented outcomes. The wellbeing of future generations depends on it.

Mr. President,

Turning to this year’s Omnibus Law of the Sea resolution, the EU and its Member States would like to express their strong disappointment that it was not possible to agree on stronger language calling on the signature and ratification of the BBNJ Agreement, or that a reference to Resolution 79/1 entitled “The Pact for the Future” and its Annexes "Global Digital Compact" and the "Declaration for Future Generations" could not be included. We regret the blocking of many other important updates in this year’s consultations on issues that were of interest to a wide range of delegations from across the globe. We also express our concern with attempts to undermine instead of enhancing the climate/ocean/biodiversity nexus in the Omnibus Law of the Sea resolution.

In addition, we regret that it was not possible to add to this resolution the latest scientific data on the atmospheric levels of two additional greenhouse gases that interact strongly with the oceans, namely methane and nitrous oxide. This should in our view be uncontroversial as it merely reflects the latest best available scientific information, the importance of which was underlined by many delegations during the informal consultations. We also regret to see that the work by the International Maritime Organization to promote energy efficiency could not be reflected in the resolution.

We are nevertheless pleased with the inclusion of several important updates in this year’s Omnibus Law of the Sea resolution, including on the sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the election of the Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority, developments in maritime safety and security, different capacity-building efforts and initiatives, and ‘Capacity-building and the transfer of marine technology: New developments, approaches and challenges’ as the topic for the 2026 Informal Consultative Process. We also wished this list were longer.

The European Union and its Member States very much appreciated the Coordinator’s attempts to further streamline the resolution. The result has been a reduced overall length and improved readability of the resolution. We look forward to continuing this work intersessionally.

Mr. President,

On the Sustainable Fisheries resolution, the European Union and its Member States appreciated the overall outcome and the constructive cooperation during the consultations, but we are deeply concerned that the debate on the status of UNCLOS, which usually takes place in the context of the consultations on the Omnibus Law of the Sea resolution, has intruded into the consultations on fisheries. We deplore the recurrent attempts to call into question by any means and in any forum the unified and universal nature of the law of the sea as enshrined in UNCLOS.

We deplore that it proved impossible to introduce new proposals referring to the 2030 Agenda, SDG 14 and gender equality, and regret the withdrawal of the new text proposals that included such references. This withdrawal resulted in not mentioning the emphasis placed by the FAO Committee on Fisheries at its thirty-sixth session on the need to promote gender equity in the fisheries and aquaculture sector, a particularly important dimension of the FAO Guidelines on Small-Scale Fisheries, whose 10^th anniversary we celebrated this year.

We note with regret that this year’s resolution on sustainable fisheries does not relay the encouragement of the Committee on Fisheries to the Food and Agriculture Organization to raise awareness on the implications of the BBNJ Agreement for fisheries and aquaculture, and to support its Members in the ratification and implementation of the Agreement. This is incomprehensible given that this encouragement was the subject of a consensus at the 36^th session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries.

We nevertheless consider that this year’s Sustainable Fisheries resolution highlights several improvements on other matters that deserve encouragement, for instance, on strengthening compliance, transparency, including on beneficial ownership, which will guide the fisheries community in its work and help to strengthen the sustainability of the sector.

Mr. President,

To conclude, both resolutions that we are discussing today are important instruments in the context of enhancing ocean governance. The EU and its Member States have therefore participated actively in the consultations on these resolutions.

We look forward to continuing our work next year.

All human beings depend upon the ocean, one way or another. The work we undertake must ensure that the ocean can continue to provide goods and services for current and future generations, in line with the ethos of the Convention.

There is only one Ocean, and we all share the responsibility not to overexploit it, but to use its resources sustainably; not to pollute it, but to protect it, so it can flourish; not to abuse it, but to cherish and share it with other species. Let’s fully recognise that life on Earth depends on a healthy ocean.

Mr. President, thank you very much.

* North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.