The ocean plays a significant role in maintaining geopolitical balance, global supply chains, and addressing socioeconomic, environmental, and governance challenges. The blue economy is a significant and growing component of African and European economies. Africa places a premium on the potential value of the blue economy in its growth trajectory as it generated a value of USD 296 billion in 2022, with projections of USD 576 billion in 2063. The EU also sees it as a key economic growth driver. In 2021, the European blue economy employed 3.6 million people, had a turnover of an estimated 624 billion Euros, and contributed to 171 billion Euros in gross value added (GVA).
Despite this, references to ocean governance and the blue economy have been absent from the main conclusions of the 6th Summit of EU and AU Heads of State and Government held in February 2022, highlighting a missed opportunity for enhancing cooperation in this strategic domain. Moreover, degraded marine, coastal, and freshwater habitats across Africa and Europe call for joint efforts to protect the ecosystem services that underpin the blue economy.
Only recently have the African Union and the European Union begun to increasingly recognize the ocean’s potential and the need for global action to harness it. The EU Comprehensive Strategy with Africa adopted in March 2020, the EU’s Communication on International Ocean Governance and a new approach for a sustainable blue economy, and the recently adopted (2024) AU’s Second Ten-Year Implementation Plan (STYMP) point to the need to increase investments in ocean governance, sustainable fisheries and the blue economy, identifying this as a strategic area of cooperation between Africa and Europe.