Working together for a healthy ocean

by Sebastian Unger, Federal Government Commissioner for the Ocean, Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection, Germany The world’s seas ensure the very survival of humankind. They produce oxygen and sequester carbon. They regulate the climate, supply us with food and provide habitats for countless numbers of species. And much of…

Europe and the Sea

by Admiral (ret) Alain Coldefy, President, Societé des Membres de la Légion d’Honneur (SMLH), Paris War made a tragic return to continental Europe when Russia invaded neighbouring Ukraine in early 2022 in an attempt to terrorise the entire country. It is a land war, partly air-land but relatively little naval, even if the French daily…

The new EU Maritime Security Strategy

by Charlina Vitcheva, Director-General, DG Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE), European Commission, Brussels The new EU Maritime Security Strategy (EUMSS)1 comes at a time of increasing geopolitical strife and rapid technological developments, answering a broad range of security challenges in the global maritime domain. The EU Member States combined have the largest Exclusive Economic…

For an “Olive-Green Deal”

by Dr Hans Christoph Atzpodien, Managing Director of Bundesverband Deutscher Sicherheits- und Verteidigungsindustrie (BDSV), and Lucas Hirsch, Sustainability Analyst at BDSV, Berlin It was in Paris in 2015 when 196 nations approved a joint commitment (Paris Agreement) to limit global warming to 1.5C and to reach carbon neutrality in the second half of this century…

The European Union’s southern neighbourhood

by Manuel de la Cámara Hermoso, EuroDefense-Spain, Madrid In 1995, the European Union (EU) launched the so-called “Barcelona process”, a comprehensive plan whose objective was to extend the area of stability, prosperity, and development to its southern neighbourhood. In 2004, the Mediterranean partners were included in the “European Neighbourhood Policy” (ENP), which included both the…