FRANCE AS THE 2ND LARGEST OCEAN POWER – LEGAL CONNOTATION OF OCEAN CHANGE TO THE FRENCH STATE
FRANCE AS THE 2ND LARGEST OCEAN POWER – LEGAL CONNOTATION OF OCEAN CHANGE TO THE FRENCH STATE

Summary/Abstract: France, being one of the largest economies and the most influential states both in the European Union and globally, remains the ocean power. Despite the fact that the colonial metropolises do not exist anymore, since the United Nation Special Committee on Decolonization does not de facto function anymore, France keeps its overseas territories. Only in the Pacific region the French State governs French Polynesia, New Caledonia, and Wallis and Futuna. French overseas collectivities in the Indo-Pacific region are considered by Paris as geostrategic area. It comes from the fact of the enormous maritime territories. 93% of the French Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) are located in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The region itself is home to 1.5 million French people, and 8,000 soldiers stationed in the region. After the shift of global pivot from the Euro-Atlantic to the Pacific, the area became also a strategical and global economy’s centre of gravity. In addition, the maritime trade routes linking Europe and the Persian Gulf, through the Indian Ocean and South-East Asia, to the Pacific Ocean, have become essential for global economy and security. Ocean change in turn is now the biggest threat facing humanity, especially those living on islands and in delta countries. The predicted and expected (sometimes already observed) loss of territory, and thus sovereignty of the submerged states is yet the problem especially in the Pacific. France, being the 2nd largest ocean power, following the USA, is aware of downsizing of EEZs and possible political tensions between Paris and its collectivities.

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