Towards the operational implementation of MSP in our common Mediterranean Sea

ended

Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) emerged worldwide as an important policy tool for planning the different uses of Seas and Oceans efficiently, in order to achieve both a sustainable development of the Blue economy and a long-lasting safeguarding of marine resources. MSP is also recognized as a useful tool to strengthen cross-border cooperation and to support improved ocean governance, in order to avoid different kinds of conflicts. Within the EU's marine waters, the Mediterranean Sea represent a very complex and delicate area, for both the presence of a large number of non-EU countries, the difficult geo-political situation in some hot-spots, the intense maritime uses and the very differentiated environmental- marine characteristics The overarching objective of the MSP-MED project is to facilitate the MSP Directive’s processes in the Member States facing the Mediterranean Sea, presently at different stages of implementation, by supporting the establishment of coherent and coordinated maritime spatial plans across the Mediterranean Region. The MSP-MED project will capitalize the results of previous EC-funded projects on MSP in the Med region, recently carried out and ongoing, and will promote also an active participation of the EU and non-EU Mediterranean countries, in a pan-Mediterranean approach. The MSP-MED project will address specific issues regarding the national MSP implementation, tailored to the actual needs of each MS, and at the same time will implement activities at basin scale, enhancing cooperation and knowledge sharing, finally ensuring coherence among the MS’ plans. The activities are built around specific intensive workshops, prepared by the Consortium partners, which have also the function to share best practices and approaches. The participation to these events will be wider than the Consortium border: the target groups include the administrations/authorities in charge of the plans, stakeholders belonging to the various economic sectors and Civil Society Organisations, research and academic institutions, non-EU Med countries’ authorities, and finally the general public.