Published on 28-06-2021
Facilitate the processes of the MSP directive in the Member States bordering the Mediterranean Sea
MSPMED – DG MARE
- Programme or Providing body: EMFF Work Programme 2018 EASME tender EASME/EMFF/2018/1.2.1.5
- Project title: Towards the operational implementation of MSP in our common Mediterranean Sea
- Acronym: MSPMED
- Duration: 01/02/2020 – 28/02/2022
- Project budget: 3.135.916,25 €
- CORILA budget: 362.302,91 €
- Stato di avanzamento/Progress:
- Contact person in CORILA: campostrini@corila.it
- Keywords: Maritime Cooperation at Sea Basin level, Mediterranean Sea, Integrated Maritime Policy, Sustainable Blue Economy, maritime spatial planning, MSP
Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) emerged worldwide as an important policy tool for efficiently planning the different uses of Seas and Oceans , 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 many non-EU countries, the difficult geo-political situation in some hotspots, the intense maritime uses and the very differentiated environmental-marine characteristics. The overall objective of the MSP-MED project is to facilitate the MSP Directive’s processes within the Member States facing the Mediterranean Sea, that are currently at different stages of implementation, by supporting the establishment of coherent and coordinated maritime spatial plans across the Mediterranean Region.
The MSPMED project will capitalize the results of previous EC-funded projects on MSP in the Med region, recently carried out and ongoing, and will promote an active participation of the EU and non-EU Mediterranean countries, in a pan-Mediterranean approach. The 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 of sharing best practices and approaches. The participation to these events will be wider than the Consortium borders: 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
The overall objective of MSP-MED is to favor the Maritime Spatial Planning process in the Mediterranean Sea, by supporting the establishment of coherent and coordinated plans across the Mediterranean marine regions and between Member States, in line with the MSP Directive objectives. More specifically, the project aims to achieve the mentioned objectives through different core activities:
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- to support the work of the MSP competent authorities and/or inter-ministerial bodies in the establishment and adoption of maritime spatial plans (in line with article 6 and 8 of the MSP Directive).
- to ease the cross-border cooperation on MSP among bordering Member States and third countries in order to ensure that maritime spatial plans are coherent and coordinated across the target marine regions (in line with article 11 and 12 of the MSP Directive).
- to use the best available data and organize the sharing of information in an exhaustive way, necessary for maritime spatial plans, by using relevant mechanism and tools as INSPIRE and EMODNet (in line with article 10 of the MSP Directive).
- The support of the work of the authorities will be made through the direct involvement in the project’s activities of the Competent Authorities and responsible institutions for the implementation of MSP in the Mediterranean . The project will support the definition of the different national MSP objectives through specific tasks, supporting the roadmaps towards the plans’ adoption of the participating MS and facilitating the establishment of preliminary plans for the identified national areas or subareas. During this phase, several workshops will be organized to address specific needs and interests of the national institutions responsible for the MSP implementation.
- Through the already in place collaboration and communication channels, the project will facilitate the consultation processes of plans with bordering Member States and third countries in the Mediterranean. It will strengthen and foster mechanisms of cross-border cooperation in the field of MSP through the organization of different trainings events and workshops, also in line with the UNEP/MAP activities. Where relevant, agreements on common MSP objectives at a basin or sub-basin scale will be promoted. It will also foster the establishment of a regional network of experts on MSP in the Mediterranean, by promoting international and cross-border dialogue on specific relevant issues and gaps. Workshops and meetings will be organized, to favor the international discussion and information exchange .
- The project will improve the existing IT platforms/systems in the perspective of easing the data use and information and knowledge sharing which are needed for the maritime spatial plans. Moreover, the project will face the main needs concerning the data gathering and homogenization, in order to obtain a common dataset and information, which are needed to achieve a coherent implementation of MSP in the Mediterranean.
- CORILA (Consorzio per il coordinamento delle ricerche inerenti al sistema lagunare di Venezia) – IT
- AFB (Agence Francaise pour la Biodiversite) – FR
- Shom (Service Hydrographique et Oceanographique de la Marine) – FR
- IEO (Instituto Español de Oceanografia) – SP
- UTH (Panepistimio Thessalias) – GR
- Planning Authority of Malta – MA
- YPEN (Ministry of Environment and Energy of Greece) – GR
- RRC Koper (Regionalni Razvojni Center Koper – Centro Regionale di Sviluppo Capodistria zavod) – SL
