Mediterranean Community of Practice (CoP) on Maritime Spatial Planning

26^th of January , Brussels – The official kick off meeting of the Mediterranean Community of Practice (CoP) on Maritime Spatial Planning that will take place in Brussels on the 26^th of January. It will be an in-person meeting at DG MARE premises, with the technical support of the Sea-Basins Assistance Mechanism and the MSP Assistance Mechanism. A number of international cooperation frameworks and initiatives (e.g. MSPglobal Initiative, Westmed Initiative, EUSAIR Macro-Regional Strategy, Union for Mediterranean dossiers and ministerial declarations, Bluemed Initiative, Barcelona Convention and UNEP-MAP) recognise the crucial role of MSP for a Sustainable Blue Economy in the Mediterranean, to address priorities and provide conceptual frameworks and recommendations towards a “Mediterranean Agenda for MSP”.

To this end, a new initiative to enhance the community of MSP experts in the Mediterranean region through a Community of Practice (CoP) – supported by the European Commission – was introduced during the WestMed Hackathon in Malta (June 2022), followed by further elaboration in Tunis during the PanWestMed event of the MSPMED project (September 2022). Further discussions were held during the final conference of the MSPMED (September 2022) and finally a coordination meeting took place during the International MSP Conference in Barcelona (November 2022). During the last WestMed Initiative Steering Committee (December 2022), the CoP was officially announced and received the endorsement of the Group as MSP is becoming one of the main priorities in the sea basin but also in the wider Mediterranean.

followed by discussions on future activities in coordination with the DG MARE/CINEA and other initiative supporting the development of MSP in the Med, the CoP will be presented. At this stage, there is a need for a continuous and structured dialogue within the MSP Community at the sea basin and sub-sea basin scale, applying the ecosystem-based approach. While the main implementation pathways and processes happen at the national level, the transboundary dimension of MSP is essential to guarantee coherence and effectiveness as well as to tackle common challenges.

We invite you to kindly save the date in your calendar and to register here. You will receive a connection link before January 30.