Communiqué on the results of the research on blue growth in theselected international projects aimed at enhancement of maritime spatial planning in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR)

Abstract

Blue growth is a relatively new policy of EU enhancing sustainable use of the sea resources. The relation between blue growth and maritime spatial planning (MSP) are not obvious. Both belong to a class of EU policies and both cover the sea space. Since maritime spatial planning in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) has recently gained its momentum, the maritime spatial planners face the challenge of incorporating the concept of the blue growth into their planning processes. This paper facilitates this task by providing a comprehensive information on the international projects executed by the maritime spatial planners and the relations of those projects to the concept of the blue growth. This is important in order to capitalize on what has been achieved so far. However, it seems that has been so far no single “planning project” focusing exclusively on the blue growth and this growth has been tackled in such projects rather at ad hoc and non-systematic manner. Thus, the research on relations between MSP and blue growth seems to be still pending. Possible directions of its development are suggested in the final part of the paper