The European Green Deal (EGD) establishes a cross-sectoral agenda directly impacting on the marine environment, with a momentum which has been recently reinforced by the Ocean Pact (European Commission, 2025). Maritime Spatial Planning Directive (MSPD, 2014/89/EC) can directly contribute to the achievement of EGD sectoral goals, and methodologies assessing the relevance of this contribution are currently of interest (Bocci et al., 2026).
The present work explores the relationship between MSPD implementation and aquaculture spatial planning, through Allocated Zones for Aquaculture - AZA - definition and management (Macias et al., 2019). The work was carried out within the project MEDIGREEN "Mediterranean approach towards a maritime European Green Deal in MSP" funded by EMFAF (EMFAF-2023-PIA-MSP). We investigated the role of MSP in supporting sustainable aquaculture development by performing two parallel analyses: collecting information from aquaculture experts and management bodies on the current stage of development of AZA and MSP planning in the Mediterranean, on the level of integration between AZA sectorial plans and MSP plans, and on the availability/interoperability of support tools used in aquaculture planning. Prioritized areas and areas with high potential for aquaculture currently identified in the different countries were also mapped; performing a desk-based analysis on three aspects which are influencing aquaculture spatial planning and management: i) multi-level governance alignment; ii) interaction of aquaculture with other maritime uses and with marine conservation; iii) environmental interactions and climate resilience of aquaculture zones. This second step was performed by reviewing aquaculture strategic documents at the national level, technical documents from European Commission and General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean, and by collecting examples from existing AZA experiences.
Results of the two analyses are discussed, in order to define more clearly the role of MSP in contributing to the EGD objective of sustainable sea-food production; the discussion benefits from the feedback received within two recent meetings of the Community of Practice on Maritime Spatial Planning in the Mediterranean (MED-MSP COP), in which the preliminary results of the work were presented.
References
Bocci M, Cornet A, Arki V, Soffietti F, Bas A, Brigolin D, Campillos-Llanos M, et. al. (2026) Disentangle the skein: a nomenclature framework to assess the contribution of Maritime Spatial Plans to the European Green Deal. Front. Ocean Sustain. 4:1751387.
Macias, J. C., Avila Zaragoz��, P., Karakassis, I., Sanchez-Jerez, P., Massa, F., et al. Allocated zones for aquaculture: A guide for the establishment of coastal zones dedicated to aquaculture in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea (Studies and Reviews No. 97). General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean, FAO.