The EU’s General Affairs Council has adopted legislation to improve the planning of maritime activities. The new Maritime Spatial Planning Directive will help Member States develop and coordinate various activities taking place at sea so that they are as efficient and sustainable as possible.

Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Maria Damanaki welcomed the Council’s green light, saying, “we want to make the growth of maritime sectors both smart and sustainable. The Directive reconciles the diverse uses of the sea and will make access to maritime space more predictable. This will help avoid potential conflicts between users, so that businesses can enjoy a more stable and assured environment, and so that we can better manage the impact of human activities on the marine environment.”

Commissioner for the Environment Janez Potocnik added, “this is a good example of how economic development and safeguarding the environment can go hand in hand. Good planning means a win on both counts.”

The Directive is a cornerstone in the EU’s Blue Growth strategy, allowing more efficient implementation of EU legislation for both economic and environmental gain. With Maritime Spatial Planning, operators and developers will have greater certainty about their investments and should also see a reduction in red tape.

Each relevant EU Member State must now transpose the Directive into their national legislation and to nominate a Competent Authority in charge of its implementation by September 2016. Although national maritime spatial plans must comply with a number of minimum requirements set by the Directive, countries are free to tailor the content of the plans to their specific economic, social and environmental priorities, as well as to their cultural traditions and legal context.

Maritime Spatial Planning will improve the implementation of environmental legislation in Europe and secure the link between coastal and maritime activities. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) specifically refers to MSP as a key implementation tool which is designed to properly manage and reduce the cumulative impact of all maritime activities in a given sea area.

This will help Member States to reach good environmental status of their waters by 2020. Through the MSFD, Member States have the obligation to establish a coherent network of Marine Protected Areas. Cooperation on planning across borders is essential to reach that goal.

The Directive will also help the EU reach UN Convention on Biological Diversity objective to cover 10% of marine waters with designated protected areas.

The Directive on MSP will cover coastal waters. By being included in the planning of the seas, coastal activities on the water will be managed more sustainably.

Experience shows that countries that have developed MSP have also massively improved their coastal management by taking into account the joined-up nature of coastal and marine interests.

Member States will be asked to draw up maritime spatial plans. These will identify all existing human activities and the most effective way of managing them. They will have to fulfil minimum requirements:

take into account interactions between the sea and land;

establish appropriate cross-border cooperation between Member States;

establish means of public participation for stakeholders, authorities and the public concerned;

use of the best available data and organise the sharing of information between stakeholders;

The Directive respects Member States prerogative to tailor the content of the plans and strategies to their specific economic, social and environmental priorities, as well as their national sectorial policy objectives and legal traditions.

The planning details and the management objectives are left to Member States. The EU will not take part in this process.

The aim is for Member States to establish processes which cover the full cycle of problem identification, information collection, planning, decision-making, management, monitoring of implementation, and stakeholder participation.

By 2016, Member States are required to transpose the Directive into their national legislation and nominate the Competent Authority in charge of the implementation of MSP. The plans themselves will need to be established by 2021.

Photograph by Alain Salvary

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