When Security Enters the Heart of Ocean Discussions
On 9 June 2025, announcing the establishment of the European Ocean Pact, EuropeanCommission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke of the ocean in the following terms: Itfeeds us, cools us, and connects us to the world. […] The Ocean is still in crisis. Without action, we risk our future, directly linking life on Earth to the health of this wonderful natural space, and framing ocean protection as a matter of security.
The European Ocean Pact, as presented by the European Commission, will serve as a nonbinding, comprehensive strategic framework for ocean governance. Among its six pillars, one addresses maritime security. Set alongside objectives for marine ecosystem health, this addition reflects the growing importance of environmental security, defined as the link between environmental degradation and the security of individuals, understood here broadly to include food, geopolitical, physical, health, and economic security.
The Ocean is linked to each of these dimensions of security: the ocean provides part of our food security, it strengthens our economic activities. Its seaweed act as carbon sinks and help us fight the climate crisis. Its ecosystems astonish us with their richness. And yet, the sea faces countless pressures, directly linked to our human activities, jeopardising our security. As Sylvia Earle, an American biologist, said: no water, no life. No blue, no green. This is why environmental security and maritime security are increasingly inseparable. This is why talking about maritime security in the European Ocean Pact is not trivial, it is an open door for the political concretization of the notion of environmental security.
The Ocean as a Nexus to Environmental Security Challenges
The inclusion of the security dimension in the European Ocean Pact comes as no surprise: theocean encompasses the full spectrum of environmental risks that ultimately give rise to threatsto maritime security.
Maritime security can be defined as the objective for an actor or group of actors to eliminatethreats that may affect maritime interests. It is inherently linked to the environmental security,with environmental concerns not peripheral but embedded within its very definition. Manymaritime security challenges, defined by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) asunlawful acts including piracy, armed robbery, terrorism, and maritime violence, are indeedlinked to the exploitation of ocean resources and closely tied to the health of the marineenvironment.
A threat that is being discussed more and more is related to the Russian oil tankers clandestinely used to export oil despite international sanctions (the so-called “shadow fleet”), which create increased risks of oil spills. This risk is explicitly identified in the European Commission’s Communication on the European Ocean Pact: The Baltic Sea is specifically where the shadow fleet presents acute risks to the environment with oil spills. Indeed, these vessels operate with an aging fleet, poorly trained crews, and without Western insurance coverage.
We can also mention the risk caused by illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing,which accounts for 28% of global fishing and poses a problem of economic security forfishermen whose survival directly depends on this activity, particularly in developingcountries.
The degradation of fish stocks, more generally speaking, poses a threat to these populations. In Africa, for instance, industrial fleets routinely encroach on waters reserved for small-scalefisheries, leaving local fishermen unable to compete with vessels that are effectively emptyingthe sea, and threatening the food security of coastal communities who depend on it. The sameway, critical maritime infrastructures are increasingly exposed to both environmentaldegradation and illicit activities at sea, and this risk is also highlighted in the EuropeanCommission’s Communication on the European Ocean Pact.
The degradation of marine ecosystems thus emerges as a security threat in its own right, blurring the boundaries between environmental protection and maritime security governance.
Furthermore, the ocean plays a key role in regulating the climate, and its disruption generatesmajor security risks through the increase in extreme events.
Additionally, the ocean provides a significant share of our food, which is now increasinglycontaminated by heavy metals and even radioactive elements. For example, as Rachel Carsonnotably illustrated in her book The Sea Around Us, humanity has disposed of radioactive waste in the ocean, sealing it in containers that degrade over time. This has led to marine lifebecoming contaminated with radioactivity, fish that humans ultimately consume.
Thus, human security on land largely depends on the health of the ocean. Since overall environmental security is directly tied to ocean protection, and ocean protection is itself directly tied to maritime security challenges, the inclusion of maritime security in theEuropean Ocean Pact offers a unique opportunity to elevate environmental security as a central concern across all related discussions.
The European Ocean Pact as a Window of Opportunity for Maritime Environmental Security
A holistic dialogue to enhance maritime environmental security
The European Ocean Pact is intended as a decisive moment in ocean governance and as an open dialogue on the strategy to be pursued in order to preserve the sustainability of ocean use. Following the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) definition, ocean governance is understood here as ‘the governing structures, processes, rules, and norms that shape how relevant actors make decisions, share power, assign responsibility, and pursueaccountability in the use and management of the marine environment’.
This discussion is intended to be comprehensive, with six pillars designed to address all thecurrent challenges facing the marine environment. The integration of maritime security,including environmental security, represents a unique opportunity to establish this issue as a critical one.
Environmental security had already been integrated into the EU Maritime Security Strategy in2023, with EU institutions formally acknowledging the emerging risks posed by thedegradation of the marine environment. Yet this dimension remained a secondary consideration within the broader maritime security strategy.
As the European Ocean Pact aims to ensure convergence among all European policies relatedto maritime governance, the integration of the notion of environmental security would make itpossible to embed this notion across all policy areas, from the protection of marine biodiversity to ocean pollution and acidification, and the protection of critical infrastructure, thereby making this concept pervasive and fully integrated into all relevant policies.
Yet the significance of including security in the Pact goes beyond structural integration. It alsotransforms the political weight of environmental protection itself.
Securitising environmental discussions: a path to greater political ambition
Another effect of including security considerations in the European Ocean Pact is thelegitimisation of actions related to environmental protection. In this context, the environmentbecomes linked to issues of strategy, stability, and national and international cooperation,thereby justifying urgent and ambitious action by political decision-makers. According to Ole Waever, framing an issue as a security concern makes it possible to mobilise exceptionalresources and to accelerate political action. This may also result in the deployment of securityinstruments in support of environmental objectives, such as maritime surveillance systems todetect pollution and illegal fishing, enhanced naval cooperation to protect marine areas, andthe sharing of strategic data between civilian and military agencies. If we follow the reasoning of the researcher Maria Julia Trombetta, developments would make it possible to devote moreambitious resources to the protection of the ocean as an ecosystem.
The growing role granted to EMSA in environmental risk management attests to this. Indeed,EMSA occupies a structural position. Its mandate has been expanded in 2025, broadening itsremit to cover ‘sustainability and decarbonisation’. EMSA functions less as a peripheraltechnical body than as one of the operational arms through which the Pact’s ambitions formaritime surveillance and environmental security are meant to be delivered.
If securitisation thus expands the tools available for ocean protection, it also opens a deeperquestion: what should maritime environmental security actually encompass?
A Momentum to Define (or Redefine) Maritime Environmental Security
Bringing discussions on environmental security within the framework of the European Ocean Pact could also help redefine its scope. When this notion is raised by European policymakers, particularly in the maritime context, the topics addressed generally remain the fight against piracy, the protection of critical infrastructure, action against the shadow fleet, and combating illegal fishing. This can be illustrated by the panel on maritime security during the European Commission’s Ocean Days in March 2026, which focused exclusively on these topics.
At this stage, discussions have not yet extended to questions of geopolitical stability or foodand economic security, even though these issues are, as we have seen, becoming crucial. TheEuropean Ocean Pact could help strengthen these dimensions within the very definition ofenvironmental security in the marine context.
Going further, one could even advocate for a shift in perspective in how we define this concept, moving beyond a self-centred vision of security to introduce the question of security for nature itself. The voices calling for the recognition of the rights of nature are multiplying. Figures such as Marine Calmet (co-founder of the non-governmental organisation Wild Legal) or Natalia Greene champion this message, noting that such recognition and the integration of nature’s rights consistently leads, in court rulings, to more ambitious decisions that are more protective of ecosystems.
Introducing the notion of ecosystem security could thus help rebalance decision-making andlead to less ecocide actions, with the growing awareness that those who threaten the securityof ecosystems may be held accountable. Indeed, a well-defined crime of ecocide would open new accountability avenues where domestic authorities fail to act and could incentivize far greater scrutiny of long-term environmental harms. Since the protection of the Ocean is, as we have seen, vital to life on Earth, taking these considerations into account would ultimately enhance the security of all and prevent the short-sighted actions that are, in the end, accelerating our collapse.
Such an evolution would therefore represent a significant normative step, positioning maritime environmental security not only as a means to protect human societies, but as a framework aimed at ensuring the long-term security of the ocean as a living system.
The Door Is Open: Time for Decision-Makers to Take Binding Actions
The potential of a discussion on maritime security within the European Ocean Pact is immense for strengthening the idea that environmental security must be treated as a subject in its own right, inseparable from other maritime issues.
Policymakers must seize this momentum. It is on them to drive ocean governance toward amodel better equipped to overcome the security challenges posed by the environmental crisis.The European Ocean Pact has opened a door. It is now the responsibility of EU leaders to walk through it, and to translate this non-binding act into binding action. The announcement of the upcoming Ocean Act in the European Commission’s 2026 Work Programme is a first step in that direction.