Greenpeace’s boat, which was to join the thirty scientific ships of NGOs invited to Nice on the sidelines of UN summit on the oceans will not have the right to enter the port, we learned from l’m Ong and the town hall.
The Arctic Sunrise, a ship of the International Fleet in Greenpeace, was to remain moored three days in Nice, in the south-east of France, from Wednesday. The Thalassa or the Tethys II of Ifremer, the German ship Meteor, the Spaniard Odon of Buen, the Italian Gaia Blu, the Ocean Explorer of Ray Dalio, the Tara schooner, perseverance by Jean-Louis Étienne or the Blue Panda of WWF must take turns in the port to welcome the general public until Thursday, then the delegations of the summit.
But the mayor and the prefect took a decree canceling the participation of the Arctic Sunrise, which can only remain offshore. On the other hand, there is no restriction on the participation of members of Greenpeace at the top.
An “absolutely unacceptable political decision”
According to the town hall, the decree follows a request from the Minister of Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacherexpressed during a steering committee organized on May 22 in Nice. The minister’s office denied, ensuring that she did not deal with public subjects.
For the boss of Greenpeace, Mads Christensen, it is “an absolutely unacceptable political decision”.
Agnès Pannier-Runacher reproaches Greenpeace Large at sea on May 21, from the Arctic Sunrise, about fifteen rocks in a protected Mediterranean area to prevent background trawling.
“I can only converse only one boat from Greenpeace has entered a protected marine area to dump pebbles (…), supposedly to prevent chalt from coming when it is a park where the chalts are not allowed, “she said on May 22 in Nice, after the steering committee. She also explained it on France Info.
🔴 Protected marine areas ➡️ The Minister of Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher judges “unacceptable” the action of Greenpeace which installed blocks of rocks at the bottom of the sea off the barcarès to denounce the fish pic.twitter.com/N06Xj7OPEd
– franceinfo (@franceinfo) May 25, 2025
The NGO replied that it was precisely a question of preventing an activity which is certainly prohibited but which persisted, ensuring that it had crossed several operations in activity during its operation.
The Arctic Sunrise had already been banished Saturday from the parade of dozens of ships scheduled for Sunday off Nice on Sunday on the occasion of World Ocean Day, on the eve of the opening of the UN Conference.
The parade organizer, Yvan Riboval, explained to the NGO that he did not want to take the risk of a claim action during the parade. He assured AFP that it was a personal decision, without “any political connotation”.
