EUSAIR - Final Report

And what are these priorities?
Let me list them as they were defined at the time, since
they show very nicely from where the Slovene Presidency
also drew emphasis and inspiration: greening of
blue economic activities and mobility (including transport
logistics), sustainable tourism, sustainable food
production (including fishing), environmental protection
(including the marine environment), capacity building,
preparing for climate change and defining actions to
adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change,
governance of maritime space.
They thus came up with seven framework contents,
which are now among the national priorities of blue
development. It was also emphasized in the discussion
that participants employed in government bodies and
public institutions should pass on these findings to
those responsible. The aim was to guide the various
ministries and government departments to follow national
blue development priorities in policy planning
and day-to-day activities.
The list of “seven glorious” blue developments
ends with the current topical theme of governance
of maritime space ...
Here, the key “breakthrough” took place within the
one-year Slovene Presidency, at Mediterranean
Coast Week last September, in Izola. More precisely,
on 18 September 2020, the spatial maritime plan of
Slovenia was presented in the meeting room of the
municipal building on Kristanov trg. Its key mission is to
promote sustainable growth of the maritime economy
and ensure sustainable use of marine resources. It is
the largest intertwining of the development of activities,
uses and regimes at sea and on the coast. The preparation
of the first Maritime Spatial Plan is based on EU
Directive 2014/89 and the Slovene Spatial Planning Act.
In addition to maritime affairs and fisheries, it covers
ten other activities related to the sea, from mariculture
to nature protection and cultural heritage.
The presented working draft also included warnings
about problematic interventions in space, such as the
planned island in front of Izola, the relocation and disposal
of sea sludge from the area of the Port of Koper
and marinas, and expansion of the coast at Semedela
and Žusterna. In a special chapter, they also focused
on the prevention and management of possible accidents
at sea and the disposal of contaminated material.
At the end of Mediterranean Coast Week, the coordinator
of the EUSAIR Environmental Pillar from the Ministry of
the Environment and Spatial Planning, Mr Bricelj, said
that Slovenia had never had such a modern and internationally
verified professional starting point for coastal
and marine management and never in history had there
been so much money available to fund agreed projects
in the EUSAIR process.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the debate
on the Spatial Maritime Plan has not been without
controversy?
The spatial plan envisages a 150-meter coastal strip
and an approximately 100-meter land strip to be determined
by local communities. It is therefore logical that it
has been the subject of lively public debate, since bringing
long-term sustainable effects still affects many current,
critical relationships. I often say that the Adriatic-Ionian
Region covers almost 70 million people and that it
is an area with many interests, so only cooperation can
meet the needs and desires that we feel in this area.
Let me remind you of the Declaration adopted by entrepreneurs
and craftsmen, scientists, researchers and
representatives of local authorities of the four Slovene
municipalities along the Slovene sea at the problem
conference “Sea, who will love you” on 27 May 2019. In
it, we wrote that in the field of spatial planning and environmental
protection, we expect that the Ministry of the
Environment and Spatial Planning will significantly accelerate
activities in the preparation of an umbrella document
for the sea. “We can’t have everything everywhere on
little more than 40 kilometres of the sea coast, so we need
to determine the purpose of individual parts of the sea,” the
declaration reads. We advocated an important role for
all four municipalities located by the sea. We therefore
established the Council for the Slovene Adriatic. When
we asked the government to set up a working body and
prepare a document, we were in fact anticipating spatial
maritime plans. We wrote that “it must be clear to everyone
where the sea belt is intended for economic activities,
where the areas are intended for tourism, where we can
place shellfish and fish farms, how much sea and where we
will protect.” We also clearly expressed the expectation
that the government and the National Assembly of the
Republic of Slovenia would propose solutions that will
have the consent of local communities. We are again
at the priorities of Blue Growth in Slovenia!
32 | EUSAIR Slovene Presidency