Countries around the North Sea and Baltic Sea are working on closer cross-border coordination of how sea space is used, under a project backed by EU funding.
The Greater North Sea Basin Initiative (GNSBI) was set up in 2023 to support cooperation on maritime spatial planning — the process governments use to organise activities at sea, such as shipping, offshore energy, fishing and nature protection — among North Sea countries, the European Commission noted in a release on Thursday.
The Northern European Sea Basin project (NESBp) supports the initiative and is co-funded by the EU through the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF).
The project is led by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), with partners from Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden.
The project links the GNSBI with the HELCOM-VASAB maritime spatial planning working group, extending cooperation to the Baltic Sea.
The project has produced a visual guide and checklist intended to help integrate an ecosystem-based approach into maritime spatial planning, along with a policy brief on cross-border cooperation progress in the Greater North Sea.
It has also developed a shared glossary of terms linked to the energy transition and biodiversity, and published a summary report mapping ongoing work on cumulative impact assessment — an approach that examines the combined effects of multiple activities and pressures in the marine environment — across the North and Baltic Seas.
“Mariparks” and shared sea space
The project has also laid methodological groundwork for “Mariparks” — designated sea zones where activities such as energy production, aquaculture and nature restoration can take place in parallel under shared agreements.
Workshops held through European Maritime Day and Baltic MSP Week have been used to build cooperation between North Sea and Baltic Sea stakeholders, while exchanging knowledge with other EU projects including ReMAP and MEDIGREEN.
