Introduction. This agreement constitutes an accord between the Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management (hereafter ‘the Minister’) and The Ocean Cleanup, comprising Stichting The Ocean Cleanup and The Ocean Cleanup Projects B.V. (hereinafter together ‘The Ocean Cleanup’). The objective of The Ocean Cleanup is to use technology that it has developed itself, consisting of multiple floating systems, to significantly clean up the plastic currently floating in the upper surface layer of the oceans. The Ocean Cleanup plans to eventually deploy such systems in the five subtropical circulating ocean currents or ‘gyres’, since plastic tends to gather in those areas due to the influence of wind and water currents. The system that The Ocean Cleanup has developed to capture plastic is unique. The Netherlands, where The Ocean Cleanup has its statutory seat, currently has no applicable regulatory or other made-to-measure legal framework applicable to such a system. However, the objectives pursued by The Ocean Cleanup are such that the Minister wishes to facilitate and support the activities in question as much as possible. Since it is desirable for The Ocean Cleanup and the Minister to conclude a number of arrangements regarding matters such as the safety of shipping, the marine environment, and other uses of the high seas, this agreement was drawn up, by analogy to the options presented under article 238 et seq. of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)7 on marine scientific research. This agreement provides for the possibility of accession to it by third parties if the third party is (i) the owner of a system developed by The Ocean Cleanup, (ii) affiliated to The Ocean Cleanup, and (iii) a legal entity under Dutch law (article 6.8 of this agreement). For each such accession, an accession agreement will be appended as an annex to this agreement and published in the Government Gazette (Staatscourant).
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