Integrating the European Green Deal into MSP

Integrating the European Green Deal (EGD) into maritime spatial planning (MSP) calls for conscious efforts.  The MSP-GREEN project  (2022-2024) has described valuable practices and identified and designed new actions that promote the integration of the EGD objectives into MSP. The work done in Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia and Spain addresses selected parts of the thematic EGD categories identified within the project: climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, blue circular economy, sustainable seafood production, marine biodiversity and ecosystem protection and restoration, zero pollution and fair and just transition.

The valuable practices showcase national experiences on EGD integration into existing MSP plans. These practices may be a source of inspiration for cross-border replication, but they can also demonstrate unsuccessful experiences that have provided valuable lessons to learn from. It is good to note that many of the MSP plans of the project partner countries were released before the launch of EGD and several practices were not initially developed to address the Green Deal objectives. A detailed analysis of the valuable practices is available in the report  Sharing valuable practices for boosting the Green Deal through MSP .

Based on national experiences, the project partners identified a selection of new actions to address gaps found in the existing MSP plans from an EGD perspective. The new actions can actively support the implementation of some aspects of the different EGD themes within MSP. The actions are either designed as a part of the MSP-GREEN project or identified from ongoing national projects, initiatives or processes contributing to the EGD integration. Although they are set in specific national contexts, there are elements that can be replicated elsewhere. The actions take up themes such as marine multi-use, biodiversity protection, climate change mitigation and adaptation and sustainable seafood production. More information on the new actions can be found in the report  New actions fostering MSP contribution to Green Deal .

Although MSP holds great potential as a framework to address the EGD objectives in European sea areas, furthering them through MSP has its challenges. These arise, for instance, from limited sea space, gaps in data needed for knowledge-driven decision-making, and the complexity of impactful stakeholder engagement. In addition, some objectives may entail a need for reconciling spatial interests and changing political priorities. 

Some solutions and key aspects to consider were gained from an analysis of the new actions developed by MSP-GREEN. The following six infographics depict these insights, describe the challenges in more detail and propose some steps to overcome them. Swipe the carousel to explore them.

You can find the infographics in  Finnish ,  French ,  Italian ,  Latvian ,  Spanish  and  Swedish .

The valuable practices and new actions identified in MSP-GREEN propose a range of examples of methods, processes and tools that can be applied in different national contexts and spatial scales to integrate EGD objectives within MSP. Although some EGD objectives, such as the development of renewable energy at sea, have already been integrated into MSP practices, a lot remains to be done. Continuous monitoring together with further development of measures will be necessary.

The project received funding from the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF).