Maritime spatial planning updates from the countries
Below an update on the current state of play regarding MSP processes in each of the countries involved in the Southwest Baltic case, including major changes in their legislation and planning systems is provided.
Maritime Spatial Planning in Denmark
Since September 2015, responsibility for the MSP-process in Denmark has moved from the Ministry of Environment and Food to the Ministry of Business and Growth. As part of this transition, the Danish Maritime Authority took over responsibility for MSP and has, therefore, become a new Project Partner in Baltic SCOPE.
Due to these changes, the MSP process (e.g. national work and organization thematic meetings) has been stopped since October 2015. However, Denmark is undergoing legislative work to integrate the EU/89/2016 Directive into their national legal system in order to assure the smooth implementation of MSP. So far, the directive has been transformed into a Draft Act on the Framework on MSP in Denmark. Public hearings on the MSP act concluded in December 2015. It is now being discussed in the Danish Parliament and is expected that the act will come into force during the spring of 2016.
Maritime Spatial Planning in Germany
There have not been any significant changes in German MSP processes since September 2015. The update of the Maritime Spatial Plan for the territorial sea of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is still under revision. After two phases of consultation it is planned to publish the updated document in the spring/summer 2016.
Maritime Spatial Planning in Sweden
There are no major updates to report on Swedish MSP process at this point. However, as seen in the figure below, the process of stakeholder involvement and consultations is still ongoing with the relevant sectors (mainly national agencies).
Timetable for the Swedish Martitime Spatial Planning Process. Source: SwAM
Maritime Spatial Planning in Poland
In the autumn of 2015 Poland completed the implementation of the Directive (2014/89/EU) establishing a framework for maritime spatial planning in national law. All the required amendments have been incorporated to the Act on Sea Areas of Poland and Maritime Administration of March 21st, 1991. This amended Act has been in force since 19th November 2015.
MSP processes in Poland are required to follow the provisions of Ordinance of the Minister of Transport, Building and Maritime Economy and the Minister of Regional Development on maritime areas (since August 5, 2013). This ordinance determines the required scope of plans in both text and graphics and defines the requirements for planning, cartographic materials, applied symbols and naming, and establishes overall standards in the way of documenting any planned works. This particular ordinance is currently under a process of consultation.
Previously, the ministry responsible for maritime economy was the Ministry of Infrastructure and Development; however, after the Parliamentary Election at the end of 2015, the Ministry of Maritime Economy and Inland Navigation was established and assumed competence in the area of MSP. In addition to maritime affairs and inland waterways, the new ministry also deals with issues in the field of fishery.
Implications for further work
The MSP processes of Germany, Poland, Sweden and Denmark are at different stages and there is a different level of understanding between them. This makes cooperation rather challenging, but it also represents a great opportunity for those countries that are later in the planning process (i.e. Poland and Denmark) to learn from those countries at a more advanced stage (i.e. Germany and Sweden). The absence of Danish partners during the identification phase, due to the wide transformation of the politico-administrative system in the country, had major implications on the activities of Baltic SCOPE. Danish participation is now being re-established and the MSP process in Denmark is being resumed. It is expected that Denmark will catch up with the activities of Baltic SCOPE. Denmark took already an active role in the discussions regarding transboundary issues and specific geographical areas of interest during the stakeholder conference and the planners meeting organised in January / March respectively.
