The EU’s new strategies for islands and coastal communities recognize that Europe’s ocean future will be shaped not only in Brussels or national capitals, but in the places where people live with the sea every day. Together, they mark an important shift in European ocean policy from treating coastal and island territories as endpoints of sectoral policies, toward recognizing them as central actors in Europe’s sustainable ocean transition.The Islands Strategy covers around 27,000 EU islands, more than 4,000 of them inhabited, with a combined population of around 17 million people. It focuses on economic development, connectivity, energy security, environmental protection, climate resilience, quality of life, security and governance. The Coastal Communities Strategy focuses on the roughly 95 million people living along Europe’s 70,000 kilometers (43,500 miles) of coastline, recognizing that coastal communities are at the frontline of climate change, marine biodiversity loss, pollution, economic transition, housing pressure and security risks.Both strategies are welcome. But their success will depend on whether Europe can connect local priorities to national and EU-level ocean governance. That is where Sustainable Ocean Plans can play a powerful role. As a framework for managing a country’s ocean areas, they can connect conservation, sustainable use and economic development providing countries with a clear picture.The ProblemThe new strategies rightly emphasize the diversity of coastal and island communities and that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach is neither feasible nor effective. The climate and economic pressures are very different from one place to the next. For example, a small Mediterranean fishing village might be grappling with declining fish stocks, or a North Sea offshore wind hub could experience a skilled worker shortage, or an Atlantic tourism company could increasingly be impacted by extreme weather events.A siloed approach cannot weave together these intrinsically linked threads and so raises a practical question: What mechanism will bring all of this together?Each of Europe’s ocean policies has value. But together, they can be difficult for communities to navigate. Without a clear delivery framework, coastal and island communities may be consulted repeatedly while still struggling to shape the decisions that affect them most. Investment in ports, energy, tourism, fisheries or restoration may proceed; but not always in a way that adds up to a coherent long-term future.What Sustainable Ocean Plans OfferSustainable Ocean Plans (SOPs) are designed to address this kind of fragmentation.An SOP is an integrated, knowledge-based and participatory framework for managing 100% of ocean areas under national jurisdiction in a way that supports ocean health, sustainable use, climate resilience and equitable prosperity. WRI’s submission to the EU Ocean Act consultation argued that SOPs can act as an umbrella framework, bringing together maritime spatial planning, environmental objectives, sector strategies, ocean observation, finance and monitoring.This matters because islands and coastal communities already operate within a complex landscape of policies, strategies and planning processes that are often developed by different authorities, on different timelines and for different objectives. As a result, communities can find themselves participating in multiple consultations and complying with multiple planning frameworks, while still lacking a clear, integrated vision for their future.SOPs can help in three ways:First, they can connect local priorities to national ocean decisions, ensuring communities are not simply consulted on individual projects but help shape long-term choices about how ocean space is used, protected and restored.Second, they can help clarify trade-offs. Offshore renewable energy, fisheries, shipping, aquaculture, tourism, conservation and coastal protection all require space and investment. SOPs provide a way to consider these choices together, rather than sector by sector.Third, they can make plans investable by identifying governance arrangements, financing needs, data gaps, monitoring systems and implementation pathways.Why Islands and Coastal Communities Need SOPsIslands face distinctive pressures such as isolation, high transport costs, small markets, climate exposure and dependence on external energy supplies. But they are also places of innovation, with potential to lead on renewable energy, sustainable tourism and community-led fisheries management. An island-focused component within a national SOP could align issues such as ferry decarbonization, port electrification, offshore renewables, seafood production, biodiversity protection and climate resilience.It could also help islands access finance. The Islands Strategy points to tools such as cohesion policy, the Technical Support Instrument, Interreg, European Investment Bank (EIB) advisory support and future national and regional partnership plans. SOPs can help create the coherent project pipelines needed to use these tools effectively.For coastal communities, SOPs can strengthen the commitment in the Coastal Communities Strategy to empower communities through the new EU Ocean Act and maritime spatial planning (MSP). MSP is one of Europe’s most important ocean governance tools, but it can feel technical and remote from the people most affected by it. Maps are drawn, zones allocated and projects approved, while communities are asked to respond.SOPs offer a better route: giving coastal communities a structured role in defining what sustainable ocean development means for them. By codesigning SOPs with coastal communities, including traditional and Indigenous knowledge holders, a fuller picture shaped by local knowledge and priorities can inform which trade-offs are more or less feasible. This helps to make ocean governance more accessible and capacitated from the outset, rather than a process where communities only provide consultation after key decisions are made.In short, SOPs can help make coastal communities partners in ocean governance.Ocean Data Must Serve PeopleBoth strategies point to the growing importance of ocean data. But data systems are only useful if they are connected to decisions. SOPs provide a way to link ocean observation, monitoring and local knowledge to planning cycles, investment decisions and adaptive management. They can help define what information communities need and ensure that data supports the choices that matter to them. A Practical Way ForwardThe EU now has an opportunity to align three agendas: the EU Ocean Act, the Islands Strategy and the Coastal Communities Strategy. The Act can provide the legal and governance framework, the strategies can provide the place-based priorities and SOPs can connect them. Three practical steps would help.First, the EU Ocean Act should require member states to develop national SOPs, or SOP-equivalent frameworks, covering 100% of marine areas under national jurisdiction.Second, those plans should include dedicated island and coastal community components, showing how local priorities are reflected.Third, the European Commission should launch a small number of island and coastal SOP demonstrators across Europe’s sea basins.Sustainable Ocean Plans offer a tested, practical and internationally recognized way to connect local priorities with national ocean governance. They can help ensure that coastal and island communities actively shape the EU’s ocean transition, rather than simply respond to it.