Slovenia’s steps towards MSP

Under the EU Directive on Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) Slovenia has the obligation to prepare the Marine Spatial Plan. This is also a requirement of the ICZM Protocol where the land-sea interactions are even strongly requested to be adequately dealt with. In order to respond to both, and in particular to integrate the ICZM Protocol obligations, PAP/RAC was invited to the meeting that took place at the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, Directorate for spatial planning, on 20 October 2016. The main objective was to discuss the implementation of the MSP Directive and the ICZM Protocol with the focus on the preparation of the MSP for Slovenia. In addition to representatives of the Directorate, the consultants from the Urban Planning Institute of Slovenia and the Geodetic Institute of Slovenia, who are drafting the concept for MSP in Slovenia, a PAP/RAC expert attended the meeting. After a presentation on ICZM, and in particular its relationship to MSP given by PAP/RAC Deputy Director, as well as the progress on the preparation of the Regional Framework for ICZM and MSP in the Mediterranean, a constructive and very rich debate developed. This provided the national consultants to better frame various aspects of MSP when developing the output envisaged for the Directorate. Links to a number of PAP/RAC reports were provided as a source of information, as well.

PAP/RAC will continue providing technical assistance to the countries when implementing the ICZM Protocol and in particular for the emerging issues, such as MSP.