The European Ocean Days is a week-long event organised by the European Commission in Brussels, with a series of dynamic and interconnected sessions relevant to maritime topics.

Each day features distinct sessions focused on various key ocean-related themes, allowing participants to engage deeply with sustainable blue economy, considering fisheries science outcomes, showcasing Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters actions, blue investments, and dialogues with key stakeholders, including youth.

Mission Ocean – a plethora of inspiring projects

It was very exciting for us at Esplora to be able to briefly intervene during one of the conference sessions and outline the Island Guardians project.

It was also very good to connect with other projects falling within the scope of Mission Ocean and like-minded organisations, including our Remedies partners at the Slovenian National Institute of Chemistry and the Impact Hub in Athens.

Paving the way to the European Oceans Pact

A considerable part of the talks focused on the challenges and opportunities surrounding the new European Oceans Pact, to be unveiled shortly at the Third United Nations Ocean Conference taking place in Nice (June 2025), which will set a vision for a holistic approach to ocean-related policies.

The European Oceans Pact will look at how we affect the ocean, how the ocean affects coastal communities and at the opportunities that the ocean provides us with. It will aim to bring coherence across all EU policy areas linked to oceans. It will also focus on supporting resilient and healthy oceans and coastal areas, promoting the blue economy.