Our Story
The more we care about the ocean, the more the ocean can care about us ~ Antonia
We all live on the Blue Planet. This makes being blue not only our identity but especially our responsibility ~ Antonia
We (youth), are not only the "leaders" of tomorrow, we are the partners of today ~ Ona
This is undoubtedly also a question of intergenerational justice. Working together with this highly committed and talented group of young Europeans has made me hopeful that we can change our harmful practices in the future, if we are part of a political community that is, at least complementarily, defined by its relationship to the ocean and that legally incorporates the spirit of young minds. ~ Jan
The Young Citizens' Council for the Ocean began with a simple but urgent question:
What does it mean to be a citizen in a world where the ocean connects us all — politically, ecologically, and morally?
In 2024, the EU4Ocean Coalition launched the “Challenge of the Year: Be a Blue Citizen – Ocean, Citizenship and Democracy.” The submission deadline fell just days after the European elections. For us, this timing was more than coincidental.
Those elections revealed a worrying trend: especially among younger age cohorts, support for Europe as a political project appeared to be weakening. Many young voters seemed to turn away from the idea of shared European responsibility and back toward national frames of reference and short-term interests. At the same time, the major challenges shaping their future — climate change, biodiversity loss, ocean degradation — clearly transcend national borders.
Jan and Nina, siblings and co-initiators of the project, could not accept this contradiction. They did not believe that young people were inherently turning away from Europe — but rather that Europe was failing to make its relevance tangible to those who are just beginning to see themselves as political citizens.
Instead of resigning themselves to this development, they looked for a way to respond constructively.
Why Youth? Why Citizenship? Why a Council?
The project was conceived as a hopeful counter-proposal: a space in which young people could experience Europe not as an abstract institution, but as a shared political community capable of addressing genuinely transnational challenges.
We focused on young people because they:
- are already directly affected by decisions on the ocean and climate,
- are reaching voting age and forming their political identities,
- and are often invited to engage symbolically, but rarely institutionally.
Citizenship is more than awareness or engagement. It implies rights, responsibility, and participation within democratic structures. If young people are expected to care for Europe's seas, they must also be enabled to shape the political conditions under which that care becomes effective.
Jan and Nina chose the format of a council because citizens are not spectators.
A council stands for structured participation, deliberation, disagreement, and collective decision-making.
From Motivation to Action
Through the Young Citizens' Council for the Ocean, 16 young people from 11 European countries came together to explore what Blue Citizenship could mean in practice. Working across borders, languages, and perspectives, they developed the Blue Citizen Compass — an orientation that brings together values, responsibilities, policy recommendations, and institutional ideas for youth participation in ocean governance.
The project is common journey as Blue Citizens. It is about creating a political learning space: a space where young citizens could think together, argue respectfully, vote, compromise, and take responsibility — as Europeans.
Project contributors believe that Europe remains a project worth believing in, especially when it is grounded in solidarity, democratic participation, and shared responsibility for the global commons.
The Young Citizens' Council for the Ocean is our contribution to making that belief tangible again — not through slogans, but through practice.