Over the years and successive European treaties, European institutions and fields of action of the European Union, called areas of expertise, have slightly evolved. Even if they are largely economic (growth, free trade, etc.) the European Union has also integrated in its founding texts an objective of “high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment”.

European citizens can invest and participate at a European level in different ways: public consultations, votes, petitions… Because everyone can speak up, Surfrider reminds you how the European Union works and the role that we have to play.

How does the European Union work ?

The European Union is an organization of 28 Member States gathered around political and economic objectives such as establishing common policies, assisting each other in case of difficulties, preserving peace and negotiating with other countries.

If the Member States remain independent nations, they partly delegate their power to three main institutions: the European Commission, the EU council and the European Parliament.

The European Commission, composed of 28 commissioners (thus one per country), proposes and implements the EU policy. The European Union council regularly gathers the ministers of the Member States around a specific subject (transportation, agriculture…) and adopts laws and the budget of the EU with the Parliament. The Parliament contributes to the elaboration of the European legislation together with the Commission and the EU council, and it plays a role of political impetus.

How does the European Union commit to the protection of oceans ?

The European Union has established a framework of action for the protection of oceans via the “Marine Strategy Framework Directive”. This directive sets objectives to each Member State to attain (or maintain) the good ecological status of waters by 2020. This good ecological status translates in a clean ocean and in the correct functioning of marine ecosystems.

The Member States’ duty is thus to ensure the protection and the conservation of the marine environment, avoid its decline, ensure the restauration of the ecosystems after their degradation and reduce the inputs in the marine environment to progressively eliminate pollution.

To achieve this « good ecological status of waters », the procedure requires 4 steps, reviewed every six years: a diagnosis/evaluation, the characteristics of the good ecological status, the definition of the environmental objectives and the surveillance program.

In addition to this directive, the citizen can speak up in favor of the oceans with the upcoming European elections, in 2019.

European election of 2019 : the occasion to speak up

In a year, in May 2019, citizens of the European Union will elect the European Parliament’ deputies for a period of five years. The seats are given to 751 eurodeputies elected by direct universal suffrage.The lists that will get over 5% of the voices will get seats in the European Parliament.

For the citizens, these elections will allow them to elect their deputies and to influence directly the European politics. This electoral period is the right time to speak up and vote for a deputy that integrates the protection of the oceans in his program.

Citizens can therefore influence the decision-making of the EU. Despite the global unawareness of the decision processes at a European level, different ways of participating to the debate exist. Each citizen can follow a participative approach by choosing a cause that he cares about and defend it.