Turkey has claimed half of the Aegean Sea falls under its area of marine influence, escalating a territorial spat with Greece over where to put ocean conservation zones. The move comes after Greece said it would create marine parks in waters Turkey considers its own. On Monday, Turkey submitted to UNESCO a so-called maritime spatial plan, an official document which sets the marine areas where activities including fishing, tourism and renewable energy projects can take place. It also underpins the creation of marine protection zones. Even though the spatial plan does not define the country’s exclusive economic zone, the map prepared by Ankara University reflects several of Turkey’s long-standing territorial claims, many of which conflict with those of neighboring Greece. Greek officials complained the map effectively splits the Aegean Sea in half, claiming the maritime zones of numerous Greek islands into Turkey’s proposed maritime jurisdiction. “Ankara’s map is not based on any provision of international law and produces no legal effect,” Deputy Foreign Minister Tasos Chatzivasileiou told Greek radio on Tuesday. “It reflects the long-standing Turkish positions but has no legal force. Greece will move [to respond] at all levels.” The move comes a week after the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that legal procedures for the creation of Greece’s first two marine parks, a contentious issue with neighboring Turkey, will begin this month. Speaking at the United Nations ocean summit in Nice, Mitsotakis said the two marine parks will be established in the Ionian Sea and in the Southern Cyclades region of the Aegean Sea as a first step. The move comes a week after the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that legal procedures for the creation of Greece’s first two marine parks. | Dumitru Doru/EPA Greece faced a fierce reaction from Turkey last year when it initially announced plans to set aside some of the waters between the two countries for ecological sustainability. Ankara is contesting the sovereignty of some of the maritime territory involved. The exact location of the maps has not been made available yet, but, according to Greek officials, the Southern Cyclades park will not involve contested areas. Turkish concerns are more likely to focus on the Dodecanese islands and nearby islets, which were part of earlier proposals but are left out of the Greek government’s current planning. Turkey asserts that the Greek islands are not entitled to full maritime zones beyond 6 nautical miles. Greece upholds the position that this is against international maritime law. In the Eastern Mediterranean, Turkey’s map extends to the boundaries outlined in a Turkish-Libyan maritime memorandum signed in 2020, an agreement that Athens rejects as illegal and invalid. It also highlights some areas licensed to the Turkish Petroleum Corporation for exploration activities. In April, Greece completed its national Maritime Spatial Plan and published the official map, outlining its maritime zones in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, after years of delays that drew rebuke from the European Commission. Ankara rejected the Greek plan, arguing that it infringes on Turkey’s claimed maritime jurisdiction in both regions, and criticized what it described as Greece’s unilateral approach.

NICE, France — An international agreement on protecting the world’s oceans could soon enter into force as French President Emmanuel Macron announced Monday that enough countries have “formally committed” to ratifying the so-called High Seas Treaty. “While the Earth is warming, the ocean is boiling,” Macron said. “Our scientists are telling us things we could never have imagined: heat waves in the very heart of our oceans. And as the sea rises, in addition to fire, submersion is on the horizon.” The ocean generates more than half of the planet’s oxygen and absorbs 30 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions. But with marine and coastal ecosystems facing multiple threats — including the impact of climate change as well as pressures from fishing and pollution — that could all change. Ocean oxygen content is decreasing globally, according to a 2024 UNESCO report, and ocean warming is happening at an unprecedented and accelerating rate. “The ocean is our greatest ally, whether you live here in Europe, or anywhere in the world,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “But if we neglect the ocean, if we treat it without respect, it will turn against us,” she added, pointing to the “ever more violent storms [that] ravage our coasts.” Macron and von der Leyen spoke at the third United Nations Conference on the Oceans (UNOC) in Nice, France, where delegations from more than 120 countries, including more than 50 heads of state and government, are gathered in an attempt to resuscitate the world’s long-suffering oceans. The High Seas Treaty — or the the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ), as it’s officially known — sets standards for the creation of marine protected areas in international waters, among other measures. It can only be implemented once at least 60 countries have officially ratified it. The agreement will, supporters hope, go a long way toward protecting 30 percent of the planet’s lands and seas by 2030 as foreseen in the COP15 biodiversity agreement reached in December. Thanks to 15 countries which have newly “formally committed to joining” — on top of the 50 or so ratifications already submitted — the High Seas Treaty will soon be implemented, Macron said Monday morning. “So that’s a win,” he said. OUR GREATEST ALLY The French president was flanked by von der Leyen, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres and Costa Rica President Rodrigo Chaves, who is cohosting the conference. “The sea is our first ally against global warming ,” Macron said in his opening speech. “Today, we are inches away from the 60 signatures for ratification,” said von der Leyen. “So to bring the High Seas Treaty to life, Europe will contribute €40 million to the Global Ocean Programme. So I ask you all today: Please speed up ratification, because our ocean needs us to play [our] part.” The EU ratified the treaty last month. Lula, in his own opening speech Monday, announced that Brazil would also soon be ratifying the treaty. Environmental groups are encouraged by Macron’s announcement, which follows weeks of speculation over whether the 60-country threshold for ratification would be reached in Nice. “Countries have finally stopped dragging their feet and it is hoped we can now move forward with protection of one of the most important areas for biodiversity on Earth — the high seas,” said Catherine Weller, global policy director for Fauna & Flora. “We now need those countries that have committed to ratification to get the final technicalities over the line — and then the real work needs to begin,” she added. Weller urged leaders to follow “best practices” in designing connected networks of “high-quality, well-managed” marine protected areas. They should safeguard the migratory routes of critically endangered species like whales and sharks, for example. ELEPHANT (NOT) IN THE ROOM The United States is conspicuous in its absence from Nice, having decided to skip the conference, as reported by POLITICO last week. A State Department spokesperson said the conference is “at odds” with positions held by the current U.S. administration. The conference, which ends Friday, is an opportunity for countries to discuss and present new agreements on topics from environmental financing and deep-sea mining to illegal fishing and bottom-trawling. The summit aims to promote enduring uses of ocean resources — one of 17 sustainable development goals held by the United Nations. But the Trump administration has rejected those goals, calling them “inconsistent with U.S. sovereignty.” Macron took a dig at the absent delegation, flaunting a new scientific program aimed at exploring the world’s oceans — the “Neptune Mission” — while the U.S. schemes to send astronauts to plant its flag on Mars. “Rather than rushing off to Mars, let’s already get to know our final frontier and our best friend, the ocean,” said Macron.

The European Commission will propose a sweeping new law to manage the use of Europe’s oceans, in a surprise announcement that was broad in scope but light on detail and opens the way for years of lobbying over how to treat EU marine resources. An earlier draft of the European Ocean Pact, obtained by POLITICO, did not mention the Ocean Act, and Thursday’s announcement of concrete legislation caught many groups by surprise. The Ocean Act, announced on Thursday by EU Oceans Commissioner Costas Kadis, will update the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive, which governs the economic use of EU waters. The new law would be introduced by 2027. But Kadis said the new act would go well beyond the scope of the MSPD, providing a framework to implement the wide-ranging goals of the new European Ocean Pact, a policy promise of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s second term. Those goals include cutting red tape, promoting sustainable aquaculture and fishing, boosting ocean tourism, strengthening maritime defense and investing in ocean science.  “The [Ocean] Act will ensure that existing targets linked to the ocean are identifiable under one roof and will facilitate their coherent and effective implementation, while at the same time decreasing administrative burden,” Kadis said Thursday. But the announcement was light on detail, opening the way for multiple policy fights between environmental and commercial interest groups. WHAT WE DO KNOW The promised Ocean Act, contained within the broader Ocean Pact released Thursday, will strengthen maritime spatial planning through “improved cross-sectoral coordination at national level” and a more organized approach to managing sea basins, the Commission said. It will also provide a “single framework” to help implement the European Ocean Pact, while also reducing administrative burden — including by cutting reporting obligations for EU countries. The European Ocean Pact does not promise new, concrete measures for designating new marine protected areas or improving their management, instead pledging to “work on the effective implementation and enforcement of existing EU legislation.” The same goes for bottom trawling in MPAs, the controversial practice of dragging heavy fishing nets on the seafloor to scoop up fish living on or close to the seabed. In an attached annex, it does reiterate an “aspirational goal” of phasing out bottom trawling in MPAs by 2030, previously announced in a 2023 EU Marine Action Plan. The European Ocean Pact does not promise new, concrete measures for designating new marine protected areas or improving their management, instead pledging to “work on the effective implementation and enforcement of existing EU legislation.” | Sina Schuldt/Picture Alliance via Getty Images The draft plan also includes a section on ocean defense and protection of critical infrastructure, as well as sections on international ocean governance and on protecting coastal communities from the effects of climate change. The document teases the arrival of a new EU Coastal Communities Development and Resilience Strategy by 2026. REACTIONS POUR IN Environmental groups have described the measures as a “mixed bag” and a “missed opportunity.” Still, they see promise. The Ocean Act is “promising & could pave the way for a healthy ocean, but only if it’s bold & binding,” said the NGO Seas At Risk on social media. “The Commission’s commitment to an Ocean Act is a strong signal — if it comes with binding targets, it could finally deliver real ocean protection,” said WWF Ocean Policy Manager Jacob Armstrong. “But while the direction is right, the Act will need to clarify key areas — including how public funding will be secured to make ocean protection a reality.” Fishers, too, see an opportunity. “It’s a good idea to — the way that I understand the Act — to reshape some of the dysfunctional legislation that’s in place when it comes to marine protection and marine spatial planning,” Esben Sverdrup, president of the European Association of Fish Producers Organisations, told POLITICO. “There’s also a lot of insecurity in my sector and fishing communities: What is going to happen in the future? Where can we fish in the future? Will there be windmill parks? Will they be built? What would be protected areas? What kind of protection would be in those areas? “We hope that the Ocean Pact and the Act will provide more stability in terms of how we manage the oceans, and that’s fundamental for the future of fisheries.” He said he hopes it will lead to “fewer but much better Protected Areas in the marine environment.” Isabelle Le Callennec, an EU lawmaker with the center-right European People’s Party who sits on the fisheries committee, said the pact “promotes a balance between the necessary protection of the environment and the requirements of maintaining a healthy maritime economy.” Other political groups were less immediately satisfied. The European Parliament’s center-left Socialists and Democrats group said it would “fight to turn [the act] into real action: to protect biodiversity, defend jobs, boost marine renewables.” “Research, money, ambition; everything the Commission announces here is badly needed,” said Green MEP Bas Eickhout. “Yet I also expect clarity on what we will no longer do. Intensive fishing in nature reserves, for example. Hard action is unfortunately lacking.” This story has been updated.