Kingston, Jamaica, 31 March, 2026 – Following my trip to the United Kingdom and Switzerland, I traveled to Brussels, Belgium where I had the opportunity to meet a number of stakeholders to increase understanding of the work and role of the ISA and hear from them regarding concerns and opportunities.
I was very pleased to meet with the CEO of DEME, Mr. Luc Vandenbulke and his Managing Director for Global Sea Minerals Resources (GSR), Kris Van Nijen. DEME is the parent company for GSR, a long-standing ISA Contractor based out of the Netherlands. I was impressed by DEME’s diverse portfolio of 150 years of experience across offshore energy, marine infrastructure and environmental remediation. I was also interested in their goals in developing the least impacting viable technology, and that efforts in this direction are being hindered by a lack of future market certainty. I have also heard from other Contractors that in addition to technological advancements, marine scientific research, an obligation of Contractors under ISA exploration permits, is also increasingly challenging. I did emphasize that I do feel that the best way to protect the marine environment and accelerate innovation is by having a strong rules-based framework along with ambitious Standards & Guidelines that will not only guide potential activities in the Area but also provide a gold standard for activities in Exclusive Economic Zones; this would be through a non-regression policy where national legislation should be as rigorous as international law. We also discussed ways to increase usefulness and productivity of the Contractors meetings, which my team will take forward.
Next stop was the European Commission (EC) where I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Executive Vice-President Teresa Ribera who leads the Clean, Just and Competitive Transition for EC, and her team. We had a fantastic conversation about maintaining European competitiveness and the perils of having many different standards at the national level for budding industries. We agreed on the importance of a rules-based approach and that it is not in anyone’s benefit to have activity precede governance on matters of deep-sea management. We also discussed the importance of the precautionary approach and my opinion that this is now well represented in the latest text. I very much look forward to working with this team to build understanding about the ISA across the relevant commissions.
We received a kind welcome from the Deputy Director General of the Directorate-General for the Environment, Patrick Child, and his team for a discussion on the ISA’s environmental dimensions as well as precautionary approaches that are being consolidated in the latest text. I also pointed out that the focus on marine protection by civil society actors has really helped to raise awareness and put a spotlight on the overarching goals of the ISA, which is to organize and control activities in the Area while minimizing harm to deep-sea biodiversity and ecosystems. We also discussed the importance of protecting the deep-sea through a regulatory framework in order to optimize the success of the ISA and BBNJ Agreement. The Deputy Director-General and highlighted the Ocean Pact, which was an outcome of the UN Ocean Conference-3, that allows a dynamic space for evolution of the position at which time there is adequate insurance of environmental protection and socioeconomic consideration. We both agreed that continuing to build evidence base and scientific discovery are crucial to the success of the regulatory framework.
Ms. Charlina Vitcheva, Director-General of the DG for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, and her team gave us a fantastic briefing on their work, particularly around marine scientific research and we discussed opportunities to join hands to advance this area that can feed into the negotiations towards the regulatory framework. I explained the modalities of ISA Contractors across research, transfer of technology and capacity building, all which are ensured through the obligations of ISA Contractors at the exploration phase; as well as my concerns about the United States finalizing rules allowing a one-step application process for exploration and commercial recovery, rather than the previous two-step process. We spoke about the importance of thresholds, from which to monitor environmental impact, and Regional Environmental Management Plans (REMPs). As well as how these will be further elaborated in the Standards & Guidelines that will provide the technical operationalization of the regulatory framework. We also agreed on the need to keep matters of security, peace, friendly cooperation, sustainable development and the protection of the environment at the heart of our decision making. I very much look forward, together with my team, to exploring collaboration around the European Union’s Ocean Observation Initiative for the benefit of ISA stakeholders and all humankind.
Finally, what a great honour to be welcomed by H.E. Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prévot and his fantastic team, including my dear friend, Belgian Ambassador to Jamaica, Ms. Ellen De Geest. It was an absolute pleasure to discuss the importance of making progress on regulations for the deep seabed and Belgium’s role as bridge builder and champion of both the International Seabed Authority and the BBNJ Agreement. I very much look forward to our continued collaboration to realise the potential for the sustainable use and stewardship of the world’s ocean. I also took the opportunity to thank Belgium for its important role as co-facilitator of discussions on outstanding issues, like test and pilot mining and for intersessional work, as well as to congratulate Belgium on their bid to host BBNJ.
Leticia Carvalho
Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority