Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2013)133 - Framework for maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal management - Main contents
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| dossier | COM(2013)133 - Framework for maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal management. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2013)133  |
| date | 12-03-2013 |
The European Union has set itself the objective to become a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy by 2020. Maritime sectors offer areas for innovation, sustainable growth and employment which should contribute to this objective. In October 2012, European Ministers for Maritime affairs adopted the 'Limassol Declaration' to back the Europe 2020 Strategy with a strong maritime pillar. As the Commission identified in the Communication on Blue Growth, Opportunities for Marine and Maritime Sustainable Growth, the present legislative proposal is an essential part of this ambition to develop Europe's Blue Economy.
However, increased use of coastal and maritime areas as well as climate change effects, natural hazards, erosion, also put pressure on coastal and marine resources. They require integrated and coherent management to secure sustainable growth and preserve coastal and marine ecosystems for future generations.
Maritime spatial planning is commonly understood as a public process for analysing and planning the spatial and temporal distribution of human activities in sea areas to achieve economic, environmental and social objectives. The ultimate aim of maritime spatial planning is to draw up plans to identify the utilisation of maritime space for different sea uses. In 2008 the Commission published its ‘Roadmap for Maritime Spatial Planning: Achieving Common Principles in the EU’[3], followed by a 2010 Communication ‘Maritime Spatial Planning in the EU — Achievements and Future Development’[4], which paved the way for the present proposal.
Integrated coastal management is a tool for the integrated management of all policy processes affecting the coastal zone, addressing land-sea interactions of coastal activities in a coordinated way with a view to ensuring the sustainable development of coastal and marine areas. It ensures that management or development decisions are taken coherently across sectors. A 2002 Recommendation on Integrated Coastal Zone Management defines the principles of sound coastal planning and management and how to best implement them. The EU is also a contracting party to the Barcelona Convention, which established a Protocol on Integrated coastal management that entered into force in March 2011. This Protocol makes integrated coastal management compulsory for Member States bordering the Mediterranean Sea.
Maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal management are complementary tools. Their geographical scope overlaps in the coastal and territorial waters of Member States, where maritime spatial plans will map existing human activities and identify their most effective future spatial development, while integrated coastal management strategies ensure the integrated management of these human activities. Applied jointly, they both improve sea-land interface planning and management.
The main purpose of the proposed directive is to promote the sustainable growth of maritime and coastal activities and the sustainable use of coastal and marine resources by establishing a framework for the effective implementation of maritime spatial planning in EU waters and integrated coastal management in the coastal areas of Member States.
The increasing and uncoordinated use of coastal and maritime areas results in competition for maritime and coastal space and inefficient and unsustainable use of marine and coastal resources. Uncertainties and lack of predictability on appropriate access to the maritime space has created a suboptimal business climate for investors, with potential job losses.
Ensuring the optimal distribution of maritime space among relevant stakeholders and the coordinated management of coastal zones is essential to enable concurrent activities to achieve their full potential. It has been shown to lower exploratory research, transaction, administrative and operating costs and to increase legal certainty particularly for SME's.
To ensure the sustainability and environmental health of these various uses, maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal management will have to employ an ecosystem-based approach that ensures the protection of the natural resources that provide the basis for carrying out the various activities.
The proposed action therefore is not sector-specific, but covers all policy areas of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) with an impact on coasts, seas and oceans. It supports on-going implementation of sea-related policies in Member States through more efficient coordination and increased transparency. Maritime spatial plans and integrated coastal management strategies can also, at an early stage, improve the articulation of and reduce conflicts between economic objectives and environmental legislation.
The operational objectives of the Directive are procedural in nature. Member States will be required to develop and implement coherent processes to plan human uses of maritime space and to ensure the sustainable management of coastal areas, and to establish appropriate cross-border cooperation among them. A key added value of the proposal is support for land-sea connectivity by requiring coherence between maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal management.
Planning details and the determination of management objectives are left to Member States. The EU will not take part in these processes. The proposal does not interfere with Member States’ prerogatives for town and country planning (terrestrial planning).
European legislators have adopted ambitious policy initiatives relevant for the oceans, seas and coasts, to be implemented in the next 10 to 20 years. These initiatives include the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the Renewable Energy Directive, and the Motorways of the Sea initiative[7] and the Habitats Directive[8]. The EU is expected to adopt a reformed Common Fisheries Policy and, under the new financial perspectives, revised structural funds (the Common Strategic Framework) in 2013. The main aim of this proposal is to facilitate the coherent and sustainable implementation of these initiatives through an integrated process or processes. The present proposal does not change or modify the acquis for any policy area under the TFEU.
In particular, there are opportunities for the Member States to improve effective implementation and reduce administrative burden when implementing maritime spatial plans and integrated coastal management strategies by applying the acquis in an integrated way.
The assessment of environmental effects of maritime spatial plans and integrated coastal management strategies must be carried out in accordance with the provisions of Directive 2001/42/EC.[9] Such a strategic environmental assessment will ensure a holistic consideration of the impacts, including cumulative ones, from the various human activities at an early stage and therefor facilitate the implementation of future projects. If subsequently environment impact assessments become necessary for individual projects, the specific assessment will be able to draw on the analyses already carried out under the strategic environmental planning and therefor avoiding duplication of assessments and related administrative burden.
Contents
- RESULTS OF CONSULTATIONS
- LEGAL ELEMENTS OF THE PROPOSAL
- 1.1. General Context
- 1.2. Grounds for and objectives of the proposal
- 1.3. Consistency with other policies
- WITH INTERESTED PARTIES AND IMPACT ASSESSMENT
- 2.1. Public consultation
- 2.2. Impact assessment
- 3.1. Summary of the proposed action
- 3.2. Legal basis
- 3.3. Subsidiarity principle and added value
- 3.4. Proportionality principle
- 3.5. Choice of instrument
- 3.6. Detailed explanation of the proposal
- 3.6.1. The Directive
- 3.6.2. Annex
The European Commission organised a public consultation from March until May 2011 to gather input from stakeholders on the status and future of maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal management in the European Union.
The results confirmed that conflicts in the use of sea space are becoming more frequent, and supported a common approach for implementing maritime spatial planning in EU waters, bearing in mind the particularities of each region. Ensuring the appropriate coordination of MSP processes with integrated coastal management strategies was considered important. While EU action on cross-border issues was seen as particularly useful, there was no clear answer as to the best choice of instrument.
The Impact Assessment (IA) assessed the effectiveness and the economic, environmental and social impacts of the following three options: guidance and development of best practice, non-binding measures, and legally binding measures, including a ‘framework-type’ Directive or Regulation.
The IA concluded that even though non-binding options offer some advantages, a legally binding approach by means of a Directive is the most appropriate instrument which can ensure predictability, stability, and transparency of maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal management, while safeguarding proportionality and subsidiarity by leaving the flexibility for implementation to Member State and not interfering with Member State competences. A Directive is also the most appropriate option to guarantee that timelines for implementation are coherent with the timeframes of other relevant EU legislation and policy initiatives (e.g. Renewable Energy Directive, Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Europe 2020 targets, etc.) and to foster growth of economic activities at sea in a context of increased competition for space.
The IA Board delivered its final opinion on the impact assessment on 30 April 2012. The Impact Assessment Report and an Executive Summary are published with the present proposal along with the opinion of the Impact Assessment Board.
The proposal establishes a framework for maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal management in the form of a systematic, coordinated, inclusive and trans-boundary approach to integrated maritime governance. It obliges Member States to carry out maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal management in accordance with national and international law. The aim of the action is for Member States to establish a process or processes that cover the full cycle of problem identification, information collection, planning, decision-making, management, monitoring of implementation, and stakeholder participation.
The maritime spatial plans and integrated coastal management strategies will not set new sectorial policy targets. They have the purpose to reflect, integrate and link the objectives defined by national or regional sectorial policies, to identify steps to prevent or alleviate conflicts between different sectors and to contribute to the achievement of the Union's objectives in marine and coastal related sectorial policies. Most importantly, the proposal requires Member State action to aim for coherence of management across sea basins, through trans-boundary cooperation in the same marine region or sub-region and related coastal zone and appropriate data collection and exchange.
Implementing acts will ensure consistent implementation of the Directive throughout the EU and facilitate reporting from the Member States to the Commission and, where relevant, the exchange of data between Member States and with the Commission.
The proposal supports the implementation of the EU’s Integrated Maritime Policy (IMP), including the Marine Strategy Framework Directive as its environmental pillar. The objective of the IMP is to ensure that the sectoral policies of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) that have a bearing on the maritime space are implemented in a coherent way so as to achieve multiple concurrent objectives of an economic, social and environmental nature.
The proposal is based on Articles 43, 100, 192 and 194 TFEU. Activities covered by these policies compete for maritime space and the use of coastal resources. The processes to be set up should aim to ensure that the activities envisaged in each sector can be implemented without detriment to one other so as to achieve their individual aims while jointly contributing to the sustainable growth of maritime and coastal economies and the sustainable use of marine and coastal resources.
The proposal is in conformity with the subsidiarity principle set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). Issues such as the choice of actual developments, location of investment, priority setting and determining solutions are a matter for national or local decision-making. The planning process as such should be carried out by authorities in the Member States in accordance with their national governance and constitutional structures, national sectorial policy priorities and, to the greatest possible extent, build on existing mechanisms and policies.
EU Action is of added value to ensure and streamline Member State action on maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal management to guarantee consistent and coherent implementation across the EU and to . ensure a framework for co-operation between Member States on maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal management that share marine regions and sub-regions Cross-border co-operation on maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal management in EU marine regions and sub-regions is essential as marine ecosystems, fishing grounds, marine protected areas as well as maritime infrastructures, such as cables, pipelines, shipping lanes, oil, gas and wind installations, etc. run across national borders.
The proposal is in conformity with the proportionality principle set out in Article 5 TEU.
The proposal is limited to obliging Member States to set up or maintain a process or processes for maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal management. It establishes a set of minimum requirements for these processes, building on existing experience in Member States and enabling their incorporation and continuation under a common EU framework.
Reporting requirements are kept to a minimum necessary to assess its implementation. The Commission will ensure that maximum use will be made of existing reporting requirements. The Commission will use the information reported by the Member States and any other relevant information available through EU legislation including Article 19 of Directive 2008/56/EC, to inform the European Parliament and the Council on progress made in implementing this Directive.
In accordance with the Joint Political Declaration between Member States and the Commission on explanatory documents[10], the Commission has examined whether explanatory documents will be necessary to carry out its task of overseeing the transposition of this Directive. It has hereby given due consideration to the nature of the Directive, the proportionality principle and possible additional administrative burden. In view of the limited number of legal obligations in this Directive, the Commission considers that it would have no difficulty in overseeing the correct transposition of this Directive. The Commission does therefore not request Member States to accompany the notification of their transposition measures with documents explaining the relationship between the components of the Directive and the corresponding parts of national transposition measures.
The Commission proposes a Directive requiring Member States to establish maritime spatial plans and integrated coastal management strategies, while respecting Member States’ prerogatives to tailor their content to their specific economic, social and environmental priorities and national sectorial policy objectives and legal traditions. Subsidiarity and proportionality considerations led to the conclusion that a Regulation would not be appropriate. Also, the procedural and process-based nature of the instrument is best reflected in a framework-type Directive. Conversely, a non-binding instrument would not be appropriate because it would not achieve some of the policy objectives, namely the requirement to have all coastal Member States apply maritime spatial planning and integrated coastal management and to ensure trans-boundary cooperation. Finally, a legislative approach also ensures that the above processes will be implemented within agreed timeframes.
The proposal contains two parts, the Directive and its Annex.
Article 1 sets out the subject matter of the Directive.
Article 2 sets out the scope of the Directive.
Article 3 defines the terms used in the Directive.
Article 4 deals with the establishment of maritime spatial plans and integrated coastal management strategies at Member State level.
Article 5 deals with the objectives for maritime spatial plans and integrated coastal management strategies at Member State level.
Article 6 specifies the minimum common requirements for maritime spatial plans and integrated coastal management strategies.
Article 7 specifies the minimum requirements for maritime spatial plans.
Article 8 specifies the minimum requirements for integrated coastal management strategies.
Article 9 provides for public participation in the development of maritime spatial plans and integrated coastal management strategies.
Article 10 deals with data collection and exchange of information in support of maritime spatial plans and integrated coastal management strategies.
Article 11 provides for assessment of the environmental effects of maritime spatial plans and integrated coastal management strategies.
Article 12 deals with bilateral and multilateral cooperation between Member States in order to ensure consistent implementation across coastal zones and marine regions or sub-regions.
Article 13 concerns cooperation with third countries.
Article 14 sets out the provisions for the designation of competent authorities for the implementation of the Directive.
Article 15 provides for Member States to report on implementation to the Commission and for the Commission to report to the European Parliament and Council on the progress made in implementing this Directive.
Article 16 outlines the operational specifications and steps for implementation of this Directive for which the Commission may adopt implementing acts.
Article 17 establishes the mechanisms for control by Member States of the Commission’s exercise of its implementing powers.
Article 18 establishes the rules for transposition of this Directive by the Member States.
Article 19 provides that the Directive will enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Article 20 names the Member States as addressees of the Directive.
Annex I lists the items of information on competent authorities that Member States have to provide to the Commission.