The High Seas Treaty will enter into force on 17 January 2026. The Union has 116 days

The Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, known as the BBNJ Agreement, was adopted on 19 June 2023. Article 68(1) provides that the Agreement "shall enter into force 120 days after" the deposit of the sixtieth instrument of ratification[1]. That instrument was deposited on 19 September 2025, during the treaty event held alongside the General Assembly in New York. Four States ratified in that week: Sri Lanka, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sierra Leone and Morocco[2]. The last two triggered the threshold[8]. The Agreement therefore enters into force on 17 January 2026[2]. Article 47(2) requires the Secretary-General to convene the first meeting of the Conference of the Parties no later than one year after the entry into force[1]. The first COP must therefore meet by 17 January 2027[8].

For a generation that will spend its working life with an ocean under more pressure than any before it, the date matters less than the use that is made of it. We therefore look at three things: what the Union has already done, where its implementing legislation stands and what remains to be prepared.

What the Union has done

The Union deposited its own instrument on 28 May 2025, together with six Member States: Cyprus, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Portugal and Slovenia[3]. France and Spain had ratified earlier in 2025[3]. Five further Member States, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Greece and Malta, deposited their instruments during the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice in June, when the count reached 50[6]. On the sources we have consulted, at least thirteen Member States are therefore parties, which leaves a minority of the Union outside the Agreement at the moment of its entry into force. The ratification by the Union itself does not count towards the 60[2]. Commissioner Kadis said in May that "we urge all countries to join us in this effort"[3]. The sentence applies first to the Member States that have not yet acted.

The Union also put money on the table. It committed EUR 40 million under a Global Ocean Programme to help African, Caribbean and Pacific partners ratify and implement the Agreement[3]. Three of the four States that ratified last week are from those regions[2]. The link between that funding and the final count is plausible, although none of our sources establishes it.

The gap among the large maritime States is wider. China has signed but has not ratified, and Japan has not signed[7]. Among the top industrial fishing nations, only South Korea and Spain are parties[7]. Rebecca Hubbard of the High Seas Alliance said that "the treaty's true strength lies in universal participation"[7]. The first COP will seat the parties only. Signatories that have not ratified by then will have no vote on the rules of procedure or on the location of the secretariat[7].

Where the implementing directive stands

On 24 April 2025 the Commission proposed a Directive on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, COM(2025) 173, on the legal basis of Article 192(1) TFEU[4]. The proposal does three things. On marine genetic resources, it requires Member States to ensure that notifications reach the BBNJ Clearing-House Mechanism, with the standardised batch identifier, and that samples and digital sequence information are deposited in public repositories within three years of the start of utilisation[4]. On environmental impact assessment, it requires screening where a planned activity "may have more than a minor or transitory effect" on the marine environment, and it gives the screening decision and the authorisation decision to the competent authority of the Member State with jurisdiction or control[4]. On area-based management tools, it requires Member States to send draft proposals to the Commission before they go to the BBNJ secretariat, and it gives the Commission a preliminary assessment[4].

Three points remain open in the text. The transposition deadline and the date of application are placeholders[4]. The proposal contains no penalty provisions[4]. The chapter on marine genetic resources applies only to resources collected from a date still to be inserted after the Agreement enters into force for the Union[4]. The European Economic and Social Committee adopted its opinion on 16 July and supports "the strict transposition of the BBNJ Agreement into the EU acquis"[5]. The Parliament and the Council have not yet adopted positions. The Agreement will therefore enter into force before the Union's own rules on how to apply it exist.

The Scientific and Technical Body and the Clearing-House Mechanism are established by Articles 49 and 51 of the Agreement[1]. Neither has members or a host yet. Decisions on area-based management tools, including marine protected areas, are taken by consensus, and failing consensus by a three-fourths majority of the parties present and voting under Article 23(2)[1]. The Union and its Member States will vote as a bloc, and the size of that bloc depends on how many Member States have ratified by the first COP.

We propose four steps before 17 January 2026. First, the Council should ask each Member State that has not deposited its instrument to do so before the end of the year, and the Commission should publish the list of those that have not. Second, the co-legislators should agree the directive under an accelerated timetable, with a transposition date no later than the first COP, so that the Union arrives with its rules in force. Third, the Union should table, as a candidate for the first COP agenda, a proposal for a marine protected area in the North Atlantic that European scientists have already documented. The credibility of the bloc will be measured by its first proposal and by nothing else. Fourth, the Union should offer to host the Scientific and Technical Body and should name the young researchers who will sit on its delegation. The people who will live longest with the Agreement should help to run it from the first meeting.