The Senate Overseas Delegation recommends putting its territories at the heart of French maritime strategy, to strengthen its undermined sovereignty over its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and support the economic transition of the overseas territories.
“In view of the next maritime strategy (2023-2029), it is necessary to plan upstream for a broader association of the elected representatives of each overseas territory in its development process”estimates the delegation, chaired by the senator RDSE of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon Stéphane Artano, in a report published this Thursday, February 24.
“Growing threats at sea”
With regard to the crucial issues for the future (security, economic, energy, environmental, climate, etc.), “this strategy should also be raised to the legislative level rather than being the subject of a simple decree”and “to be the subject of a major democratic debate before Parliament on its orientations”assures this report.
Another observation, the French means of surveillance and protection “are not up to the challenge”assures the senatorial delegation, which considers that “the number of patrol boats intended for the surveillance of the French EEZ is equivalent to two police cars to monitor French territory”.
However, the threats are growing at sea, she recalls: “increasingly violent illegal fishing, drug trafficking, naval rearmament in the Indo-Pacific, development of cyberwarfare (cyber warfare, editor’s note) near the submarine cables through which 95% of the world’s data passes”.
Tailored as precisely as possible, the resources of the French Navy overseas must therefore be increased, according to the senators, who recommend in particular by 2030, “to provide each of the overseas forces with an additional patrol boat”.
“A maritime strategy designed as a vector for the integration of overseas territories”
On the diplomatic level, France must use its presence in a dozen regional organizations thanks to its overseas territories, “to act in favor of better protection and governance of the oceans”.
Finally, the maritime strategy must be the vector for the integration of the overseas territories into the world economy, yet the infrastructures of several overseas ports are “unsuitable”while they are located at the crossroads of global maritime routes and can become regional hubs, assures the report.
The vulnerability of submarine cables, which constitute strategic infrastructures for the connectivity of territories, also imposes “develop redundancy” of these cables and “to improve their resilience”, believes the senatorial delegation. For example, the French territories of the Pacific and Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon are connected by only one cable.
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