Within the framework of the EU environmental policy, the integrated maritime policy system and its MSFD directive (2008/56) aim to strengthen harmonization of already existing regional governance experiences, sharing a common ecosystem-based approach to protect the marine environment and to promote sustainability, both for the growth of maritime and coastal economies, and for the use of natural/marine resources.
The complexity of the marine governance is also reflected by several different regional agreements (for the Mediterranean region, namely, the Barcelona Convention, involving both MS and Third Countries) and agencies’ regulations (EMSA, EEA).
Besides, there is a growing amount of new sets of rules and regulations, resulting from the interpretation of EU legislation by the Commission’s working groups, i.e. Common Implementation Strategy Group. Throughout the adoption of their “guidance documents to implementation”, these working groups, indeed, add new detailed and prescriptive meanings (norms) to the text of the directive itself, after its entry into force, thus forcing local government to conform albeit without any involvement into the process. The same scheme had already been adopted for the WFD 2000/60.
However, superimposing on well-established mechanisms of regional governance which were linked to the peculiarity of certain marine and coastal areas, this Commission’s regulatory scheme embraces a top-down approach that excludes local stakeholders (trade unions, professional association, consumers networks etc.) and regional governments, preventing them all from taking part in the governance-making discourse.
This paper analyses critically the role of actors involved into the marine governance and the (mis)representation of stakeholders’ interests considering its impact upon regional dimensions. In addition, it discusses whether this scheme should be considered as effective and suitable to strike an acceptable balance between the need for EU harmonization and the sustainable economic development of a specific maritime area, considering its inherent socio-economic and natural diversity.
