France has the second one greatest unique financial zone on the earth, spanning all oceans because of its in another country territories. On this house, it’s 2d simplest to the USA. However what precisely is the EEC and what does it convey to Paris’ international relations, financial system and technique?
France is frequently described as a continental energy in decline. On the other hand, its unique financial zone (EEZ) – a maritime area of just about 11 million sq. kilometers – offers it a world geography. Within the twenty first century ruled via the contention between the USA and China, the oceans are as soon as once more where the place the steadiness of energy performs out: industry routes, undersea cables, fishing and mineral assets, and so on.
What does the EEC in point of fact exchange for French energy, and beneath what prerequisites does this asset turn out to be one thing instead of an outstanding determine? Our method is intentionally descriptive: it goals to explain mechanisms somewhat than promise a miracle recipe. We desire the long-term and dynamism of the key avid gamers, particularly the USA and China.
Assets and legal responsibility
The ocean isn’t an atmosphere. It’s infrastructure, financial area and theater of energy. This concept, a vintage since Alfred Thayer Mahan, returns to the middle of discussion at a time when the Indo-Pacific is changing into a key area of the worldwide financial system and strategic pageant.
International historical past may be the historical past of the ocean: the forces that regulate the currents regulate a part of the sector. On this studying, American hegemony since 1945 will also be in large part defined via naval superiority and a community of alliances ensuring freedom of passage. Likewise, the upward push of Chinese language energy is logically accompanied via naval ambition: an exporting and uploading energy can’t settle for everlasting dependence on a machine managed via a rival. This ancient background explains why the ocean these days is once more changing into an area of systemic pageant.
On this configuration, France has a singular benefit: a limiteless maritime house, most commonly in another country, that puts it in all oceans.
However belongings isn’t politics. “Huge” EEZ does now not robotically indicate “huge” energy. It imposes responsibilities: tracking, management, arbitrating utilization, infrastructure coverage and regulation enforcement. It additionally finds a limitation: naval energy is measured via length, and due to this fact capability to be provide.
In 2026, how a lot is the French EEZ in point of fact value as a lever of energy?
EEZ of France. Louhansk/Wikimedia, CC BI-NC-SA
We reply in 3 steps. First, we position the go back of the maritime sector within the long-term contention between the USA and China, reminding us why the ocean buildings the financial system and safety. We then provide an explanation for what the French EEZ lets in – and what it does now not – round 3 particular problems: dwelling assets, deep sea assets, submarine cables. In the end, we describe, with out an incantatory perspective, the minimal prerequisites of a “managed” EEZ, i.e. an successfully controlled maritime area.
The go back of maritime site visitors in the long run: financial system, protection, requirements
The ocean as a skeleton of globalization
In 2026, the biggest a part of international industry continues to move via sea. Boxes, hydrocarbons, grain and business apparatus flow into on quite solid sea routes. This dependence explains a easy phenomenon: pressured crossing issues – straits and canals – pay attention vulnerabilities. A disruption in Suez, the Straits of Malacca or Hormuz/Bab el-Mandeb, like these days, temporarily becomes an financial surprise.
Maritime dependence may be measured within the box of power. At the same time as economies embark on a decarbonization trajectory, oil and fuel stay vital to transportation and trade. On the other hand, an important a part of power flows passes during the strait. This configuration makes the worldwide financial system liable to localized crises. It explains why Marines, out of doors of fight, safe routes, monitor and supply a deterrent presence.
The go back of the good powers to the ocean
The go back of the ocean as a strategic area is not just a question of industry. It is usually about armies. After the tip of the Chilly Conflict, many believed in an enduring decline in naval conflicts. On the other hand, the present generation displays the other: navies are being modernized, roads are changing into more secure, and the seabed is changing into an issue.
This dynamic is visual within the Indo-Pacific, however extends a long way past: the Arctic, the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Japanese Mediterranean and, after all, these days, in spaces of anxiety such because the Persian Gulf and the Purple Sea, the place assaults on maritime site visitors illustrate the vulnerability of industry routes.
The army measurement is not just standard. The oceans also are house to nuclear deterrence for a number of powers, by way of nuclear ballistic missile submarines. This fact reinforces the strategic centrality of the ocean: floor regulate isn’t sufficient if the adversary can strike from deep. The ocean then turns into an area of strategic permanence, the place the power to behave discreetly counts up to the visibility of the fleet.
United States/China: Contention takes root within the Indo-Pacific
The dominant contention of the century is performed out within the Indo-Pacific. The USA stays the reference naval energy: projection functions, community of bases, alliances, interoperability. However China is converting the steadiness of energy via impulsively expanding its naval energy, within the provider of a broader objective: securing its waterways, loosening what it perceives as an encirclement and influencing the foundations of the regional recreation.
It will pay to be tutorial: the Sino-US war of words isn’t just a tonnage race. This is a aggregate of 3 layers.
The primary layer: highway protection. China will depend on power imports and maritime industry flows. Due to this fact, he’s in search of improve issues, escort alternatives and freedom of maneuver at sea.
The second one layer: the geography of “bottlenecks”. The Strait of Hormuz is a key passage. He isn’t the one one, however he symbolizes vulnerability: a singular trail, which is tricky to exchange temporarily.
3rd layer: same old. “Freedom of Navigation Operations” (FONOPs) encompass the USA circling army vessels to legally problem claims deemed over the top. As an example, US ships steadily go the South China Sea close to islands claimed via Beijing, and even the Taiwan Strait, to claim the primary of loose motion assured via world regulation (a real understatement these days). Beijing, for its section, combines a naval presence, coast guard, naval militias and financial force. The center of the subject isn’t just “who is stronger?” “, but “who makes the foundations?” »
That is the place the French EEC takes on which means. Now not as an “empire”, however as a geography of possible affect, equipped we arrange it.
EEC: financial regulation, now not complete sovereignty
Laurent Vilaine and Damien Afonso co-wrote The Go back of Energy in Geopolitics. Welcome to the actual international. Harmattan, 2025
To steer clear of widespread misunderstandings: the EEZ isn’t an “extended territorial sea”. The territorial sea extends as much as 12 nautical miles. The EEZ will also be as much as 200 nautical miles (370 km). Within the EEC, the coastal state does now not have all of the rights it has at the mainland. Above all, it has sovereign rights to discover and exploit assets (land, subsoil and water column), in addition to environmental talents, analysis and installations.
This precision is central. It reminds us that sea energy isn’t a question of floor house. It will depend on the likelihood to, particularly, workout the rights associated with EEZ: tracking, regulate, arbitration.
The French EEZ represents 90 billion euros of annual turnover and about 350,000 direct jobs in France.
Useful reminder: maritime zones overlap
For the non-specialist reader, it comes in handy to visualise easy nesting. The primary territorial sea, the place the state has sovereignty related to the sovereignty of the rustic. Then the adjoining zone, the place he can save you sure offenses. Then the EEZ, the place the problem is basically financial.
In the end, the open sea, the place freedom prevails. This gradation explains why the EEZ is each very important (assets) and restricted (navigation). It additionally explains why sea energy is constructed as a lot via regulation as via motion.
Economically, the French EEC represents vital possible. Actions associated with the ocean – fishing, aquaculture, maritime shipping, submarine cables or even marine power – already give a contribution a number of tens of billions of euros according to 12 months to the nationwide financial system. Added to this are nonetheless unsure however probably massive potentialities, specifically with regards to deep-sea mineral assets and offshore power construction.
However this possible presupposes the power to successfully arrange this area. On the other hand, in observe, the governance of the French EEC is according to a fragmented institutional structure. The state intervenes via a large number of actors: the Nationwide Army for surveillance and coverage, maritime prefects for state movements at sea, departments of maritime affairs to keep watch over use, and even clinical organizations for environmental wisdom.
On a Ecu scale, the placement is hybrid. The EEC stays legally nationwide, however sure insurance policies – particularly fisheries and the surroundings – are in part built-in into the Group framework. In different phrases, the French EEC isn’t the Ecu EEC, however it’s in part ruled via Union requirements, which is able to create tensions or advanced arbitrations.
This superposition of resolution ranges raises the central factor of clarity and potency. France has a world maritime area, however with no unmarried management particularly devoted to the EEZ. Therefore the ordinary debate: will have to we beef up present coordination or create actually built-in maritime governance?
On this context, the “regulated” EEZ isn’t diminished to a legally outlined house. It denotes an area this is successfully monitored, regulated and is a part of a coherent technique, an very important situation for the transformation of this geographical asset right into a lever of sustainable energy.
