The European Commission announced on Wednesday a sweeping €92 million maritime initiative aimed at positioning the European Union as the global superpower in ocean patrolling and intelligence, citing "malicious actors" increasingly exploiting grey-zone tactics.
The ocean covers 70% of the planet's surface, but only 5% of it has been explored. The Commission's goal for the ocean observation plan announced by Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans Costa Kadis and Research Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva is to capture 35% of the global ocean observing market and technology infrastructure by 2035, backed by €92 million in EU funds.
"This is about using science and good governance to understand our ocean and secure our future," Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said about the new ocean observation plan, framing the initiative as a strategic imperative for climate forecasting and defence, shortly after the United States announced the dismantling of its own ocean observatory system.
But perhaps the underlying message of the Commission's new bid to discreetly patrol the deep sea lies in its "maritime security and defence" ambitions, with subtle references to seabed warfare and the critical geopolitical reality of protecting subsea energy and data systems.
