Summary: EU Presidency Statement - Working Group on Marine Biodiversity (17 February 2006)
Ad Hoc Open-ended Informal Working Group to study issues relating to the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction; EU reaction to summary of trends; Statement by Prof. Dr. Gerhard Hafner, Austrian Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, on behalf of the European Union.
Mr. Co-Chairman,
The EU expresses its gratitude for the submission of this summary of trends. In our view, it is a very useful reflection of the outcome of the discussions we held in the last days and a fair attempt to capture the main views presented.
While the EU does not intend to engage in negotiations of your text, we would nevertheless like to offer some comments for a more balanced reflection of the discussions.
First, many delegations, including the EU, stressed the need to move from a sectoral to an integrated approach. However, we believe that this idea could be more adequately reflected. In our view, the sectoral approach should be supplemented by the integrated approach.
Second, in view of the above, the EU has pointed at the existence of a governance gap and stressed the need for an Implementation Agreement. We do not support the view that further steps toward the elaboration of such an agreement are made dependent on preceding studies and a determination whether such a governance gap is identified.
Third, in the view of the EU and a substantial number of other delegations, multi-purpose MPAs are a key integrationist tool to manage biodiversity and are necessary towards reaching the widely agreed WSSD target to establish a global representative network of MPAs by 2012.
Finally, as regards the Annex to the paper, the impressive list of specific studies is quite long and might create the impression that these studies would have to be completed before any concrete actions could be taken. This is not the position of the EU, since in our view, as supported by others, the present status of marine biodiversity requires immediate action.
We will not go into detail at this time, but the EU does not necessarily accept all statements on the status of maritime zones made at this meeting.
Mr. Co-Chairman,
In general, we see this document as very useful and important step for future discussions and look forward to the General Assembly discussions in the autumn and the convening of the next Working Group in 2007.
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