EU Mission “Restore Our Ocean and Waters by 2030”: Europe’s Strategic Pillar for the Protection of Aquatic Ecosystems.

The European Commission is strengthening its environmental policies through the “EU Mission: Restore our Ocean and Waters” by 2030, one of the five flagship missions under the Horizon Europe programme. This EU mission serves as a framework for the protection and restoration of aquatic ecosystems across the globe, encompassing oceans, seas, coastal areas, rivers, and inland waters.

The Mission’s primary objective is to restore the health of marine and freshwater ecosystems by 2030. Adopting an integrated approach that combines scientific research, technological innovations, regulatory actions, and active citizens engagement, the Mission aims to protect and restore marine and freshwater ecosystems, reduce pollution, and promote a sustainable and climate-neutral blue economy. The key targets by 2030 are the protection of at least 30% of European seas, the restoration of 25,000 kilometres of free-flowing rivers, a 50% reduction in nutrient losses and marine plastic litter, and a 30% reduction in microplastic emissions.

The Mission is implemented through large-scale testing areas known as “Lighthouses,” established in European basins: the Atlantic-Arctic, Baltic-North Sea, Mediterranean, and Danube-Black Sea regions. These areas act as hubs for testing and deploying innovative solutions in fields such as environmental monitoring, habitat restoration, sustainable fisheries, marine litter reduction, and integrated coastal management.

The Mission supports numerous Horizon Europe-funded projects and fosters multidisciplinary collaboration across different scientific areas – including marine ecology, oceanography, biodiversity conservation, digital technologies, and environmental management – with special attention to vulnerable marine ecosystems (VME), biodiversity protection, and the impacts of climate change.

Among the European projects contributing to the initiative, the LIFE PROMETHEUS project has officially joined EU Mission community, reinforcing its commitment to the protection of vulnerable species of sharks and rays in the Mediterranean basin. Through its activities focused on biodiversity conservation, sustainable fishery management and new innovative measures for by-catch mitigation, the LIFE PROMETHEUS contributes to the achievement of the Mission’s goals, and to the reinforcement of regional cooperation between fishers, stakeholders and policymakers.