EU Presidency Statement - Law of the Sea

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe associated with the European Union Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia the associated countries Cyprus, Malta and Turkey, align them selves with this statement.

First of all, I would like to congratulate you and Mr. Simcock on your re-appointment as Co-chairmen of the Informal Consultative Process on the Oceans. And we also congratulate ourselves on such a choice, because we highly appreciate your skill in co-chairing the two previous sessions. The EU is looking forward to assisting you in fulfilling your challenging mandate at this session.

We want to thank the Co-chairmen for the excellent work achieved in their document concerning the format and agenda of the meeting and the presentation of the two items to be discussed in Panels A and B. It was not indeed an easy task given the wide range of the subjects and, in the second case, the change in the methodology so far followed in previous consultations; that is, a cross-sectoral approach on issues affecting various sectors of ocean affairs.

We hope that the breadth of the subjects will not lead us into endless discussions. We rely on your chairmanship and make an appeal to speakers not to indulge in generalities, avoid repetition of statements previously made in former sessions and try to get to the point on the specific issues. The EU support a focused debate of the chosen subjects which may lead to the formulation of concrete recommendations about measures to be adopted. This debate should not, however, prevent us from raising any issue considered relevant by any delegation.

Concerning the Agenda, the EU considers appropriate the items proposed. We miss, however, the inclusion of an item about review of the ICP, given that General Assembly resolution 54/33 gave it a mandate for 3 years, which will end with the present session. It is obvious that such a review and the decision about the IPC's future is to be done by the General Assembly at its 57th session, but it is also true that the comments of the ICP may be a considerable help for the Assembly. Without claiming any exclusivity, the IPC is in the best conditions to express its opinion on its endeavour. Self-criticism is a sound and useful, although not common, practice. We still have the time... The EU will express its opinion on the various items of the Agenda in due time.

The EU considers the General Assembly to be the proper forum for a global discussion on ocean affairs and, in accordance with this view, the Assembly has examined every year the Secretary-General's report and adopted the relevant resolutions. Precisely to facilitate this annual review, resolution 54/33 established the Open-ended Consultative Process on the Ocean and the Law of the Sea. This process, launched on the basis of a EU proposal, has created the opportunity to address important specific global oceanic issues with the participation of governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders. Therefore, the EU -which fully endorsed the recommendations included in the Final Report of the two previous sessions- reiterates its support to ICP.

The EU is of the opinion that the contribution of the ICP to the debate of the General Assembly on oceans and the Law of the Sea was extremely useful and that, in this respect, it has reached its goal: to facilitate the annual review by the General Assembly of developments in ocean affairs in a constructive and effective manner. In addition, it has addressed, in an integrated manner, the legal, political, economic, social, environmental and other relevant aspects of ocean affairs, with a view to propose to the General Assembly particular issues to be considered and identify areas where coordination and cooperation within the UN system should be enhanced.

Thus, the ICP has fulfilled very satisfactorily its mandate by providing a substantial input for a better understanding of the oceans and highlighting issues for common action. Accordingly, the EU considers that the ICP should continue, subject to the review envisaged by General Assembly's resolution 54/33, to be annually convened for certain periods of time, given that it is the only forum where the multiple aspects of ocean issues can be examined and discussed in an integrated manner. We should not, however, indulge in self-complaisance. Far from being perfect, the process has had shortcomings and there is room for improvement, both in the substantive and procedural fields. The EU believes that a thorough review of the ICP will be necessary to ensure that, if the Process continues, it does so in the most effective manner possible.

There is, Mr. Co-chairmen, a synergy between the Report of the Secretary General, the ICP and the debate of such Report by the General Assembly, which comes to a conclusion with the adoption of the "omnibus" resolution on Oceans and the Law of the Sea. This resolution is growing in size year after year and often repeats conclusions and recommendations already contained in previous resolutions. Although last year resolution 56/12 was formally improved by the insertion of various sections, its reading is somewhat heavy and its content reiterative. Perhaps it would be convenient to consolidate the UN "acquis" on the oceans in a framework resolution, embodying a type of basic Action Program, and to introduce in the yearly resolution only the latest developments in the matter.

Concerning the Report of the Secretary-General, we must, first of all, thank him and the UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, for their joint efforts to submit in due time the unofficial English version of such a broad and comprehensive document, in spite of the pressure of time due to the advancement of the ICP meeting in one month. On the other hand, we have not had enough time to duly examine and assess this valuable document due to its unavailability in the official languages other than English. It is regrettable that the document will not be available in all UN official languages before May 1st 2002.

Our first reaction is rather positive and the EU is pleased to congratulate the Secretary-General and DOALOS for the quality of the Report. Like the good wine, it becomes better with the passage of time! The EU notes with appreciation the extensive nature of the Report and the detailed account of the latest developments in ocean affairs, as well as the useful information contained in the Appendixes. We appreciate the inclusion of the excellent report of the South-Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission on "Ocean Issues in the Pacific Region: Initiatives and Priorities", and congratulate SOPAC for its elaboration.

We miss the reproduction of Annexes included in previous reports concerning the status of UNCLOS and its implementing Agreements, national claims to maritime areas or the description of treaties adopted under the auspices of UNEP. We hope that this additional information will be maintained and updated, and even extended, with the description of maritime treaties adopted under the auspices of other international organizations as FAO or IMO. We request the Secretariat to keep a list of abbreviations at the beginning of the report to prevent us from getting lost in the forest of acronyms.

We also appreciate the comprehensiveness of the Report, since it covers most of the multiple issues affecting ocean affairs and the law of the sea. We have noted the various changes introduced in the structure of the report, which are commendable in most of the cases, although not in all.

We welcome the introduction of subsections on "Access to and from the sea by landlocked developing countries" in section III (which should cover all landlocked States), on "Assistance at sea" in section IV, and on "Prevention and suppression of acts of terrorism against shipping" in section V. In section IV, however, we do not support the deletion of the subsection on "Shipping".

We consider pertinent the inclusion of "Marine Environment" in an independent section, different from the one devoted to "Marine Resources", but we do not think it appropriate to include "Underwater Cultural Heritage" in section VI, because heritage is not a resource and should be given separate treatment. The subsection on "Marine Living Resources" -to which 9 pages are devoted- should be subdivided in various items dealing, for instance, with the implementation of global and regional agreements and other instruments, plans of actions, regional organizations, biodiversity, deep seabed living resources... etc. In section VII we welcome the inclusion of information about pollution from seabed activities, both within and beyond national jurisdiction, and consider that similar information on air-borne pollution should also be included.

The EU praises the introduction of an "ad hoc" section covering the three cross-cutting issues that we are going to debate in Panel B. There is, however, a lack of balance in the information provided in favour of capacity-building to the detriment of the other two issues, especially regional cooperation. We consider it appropriate to expand this subsection and include information about cooperation in maritime fields other than marine pollution, such as fisheries, marine science or shipping and navigation.

The EU is glad that the Report contains information about the developments of last year ICP, but finds that its coverage is inadequate. In the first place, the process has lost its autonomy as a separate section and has been included as a subsection of the section devoted to "International cooperation and coordination". This is both formally and substantially incorrect, because our consultations deal with many issues, in addition to international cooperation and coordination.

Secondly, the Report does not give a sufficient description of the substantive results of the meeting, especially in respect of the two main items discussed: "Marine Science and Technology" and "Piracy and Armed Robbery at Sea". We are looking forward to receiving information on what has been done as a follow-up of the conclusions of the meeting, which were embodied in resolution 56/12. We are also interested in hearing from IOC, IMO and other relevant international organisations about recent developments on those two items. In this respect, I am pleased to inform the meeting that the EU, jointly with ASEAN, organised last February in Manila a successful Conference on Maritime Security, at which special attention was paid to terrorism, piracy and armed robbery at sea.

Finally, the EU was been disappointed by the decision to suppress the Subcommittee on Ocean and Coastal Areas, of the Administrative Committee on Coordination, especially after the recommendation included in resolution 56/12 encouraging all UN bodies to help the process of coordination on ocean affairs by drawing to the attention of the SOCA those areas of their work which may affect the work of other UN bodies. The explanations on the matter included in the Report are not entirely satisfactory. We will refrain from discussing this issue for the time being and will express our opinion during the "ad hoc" debate provided for in accordance with item 4 of the Agenda.

Mr. Co-chairman, the General Assembly recommended the choice of the two subjects to be debated during our present consultations "in view of the forthcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development". The EU is aware of this recommendation and hopes that the conclusions of our debate are made available to the Johannesburg Conference, and that they will positively contribute to its success.

Let me conclude by saying that we have a great deal of work ahead of us during the present session to examine and debate the important items included in the agenda of the consultations. We look forward to transparent and fruitful discussions and close cooperation with you, the Secretariat and the other delegations with a view to reaching a successful outcome of this third meeting of the ICP. You may rely, Mr. Co-chairman, on the full collaboration of the EU and its associated members.

Thank you Mr. Co-Chairman.

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• EU Presidency Statement - Oceans and Law of the Sea (10/12/2002)
• EU Presidency Statement - Law of the Sea (12/4/2002)
• EU Presidency Statement - Law of the Sea (12/4/2002)
• EU Presidency Statement - Law of the Sea (11/4/2002)
• EU Presidency Statement - Law of the Sea (9/4/2002)