The United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular Sustainable Development Goal 14, has the aim “to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources” (1). It requires an international ocean governance.

International ocean governance “is about managing and using the world's oceans and their resources in ways that keep our oceans healthy, productive, safe, secure and resilient. Today, 60% of the oceans are outside the borders of national jurisdiction. This implies a shared international responsibility. Under the overarching UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a plethora of jurisdictional rights, institutions, and specific frameworks have been set up to organise the way humans use these waters. EU action on international ocean governance aims to build on this framework and work with others to improve the health of this resource which is open to all States” (1).

In the past decade, the European Union has taken action for oceans, for example (1):

• adopted a holistic approach to all marine and maritime issues: the EU Integrated Maritime Policy;
• put in place a robust set of mandatory environmental rules to ensure EU maritime actors use marine resources sustainably, wherever they operate;
• developed an EU-level strategy to boost sustainable and inclusive blue growth, including blue economy considerations in external policies as regards natural resources, energy, trade, development and security;
• put in place regional strategies to address common challenges and opportunities, collaborating closely with non-EU countries and stakeholders from civil society and the private sector;
• earmarked about €350 million a year for marine research, improving cooperation and information-sharing, and making maritime data publicly accessible;

EU Integrated Maritime Policy seeks to provide a more coherent approach to maritime issues, with increased coordination between different policy areas. It focuses on issues that do not fall under a single sector-based policy as well as on issues that require the coordination of different sectors and actors. It does not replace policies on specific maritime sectors. Specifically, it covers these cross-cutting policies (2):

• Blue growth
• Maritime spatial planning
• Sea basin strategies: The Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, the Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean – each sea region is unique and merits a tailor-made strategy.
• Marine data and knowledge: it brings together marine data from different sources with the aim of helping industry, public authorities and researchers to find the data and to use them more effectively in order to develop new products and services as well as improving our understanding of how the seas behave.
• Integrated maritime surveillance: providing authorities interested or active in maritime surveillance with ways to exchange information and data.

The Maritime Forum: “aims to improve communication amongst EU maritime policy stakeholders. It allows parties interested in the EU maritime policy to communicate on a common platform.” (3)