With this in mind, the European Commission has called for cross-border cooperation

in MSP [8] and [9] and has even proposed a directive to serve this aim [10]. This prompts questions of how advanced spatial planning coordination processes are within the supranational perspective of sea basins, what conditions should be fulfilled by countries to allow such systems to function, and which conditions are most difficult to fulfill, i.e., which present special challenges for the macro-regional, or sea basin level, coordination of maritime spatial plans. BIBW2992 Resolving these problems is especially important in light of the European Commission׳s proposals in the draft directive on maritime spatial planning [10]. In an attempt to answer these questions, the present paper uses the experience of the selleck compound Baltic Sea Region (BSR) and Poland as a part of this macro-region. A three-step approach was used for the work: (1) the cornerstones of the Baltic Sea basin MSP coordination effort are identified and analyzed based on the literature and the author׳s own experience (informed insider view or participation approach); (2) the MSP in

Poland is analyzed with a focus on a critical examination of existing planning efforts and how these align with the cornerstones, because the Polish maritime administration announced the formal commencement of maritime spatial planning on November 18, 2013; (3) conclusions are drawn with the hope that they will trigger a general debate on MSP. Quite a number of papers describing MSP experiences in various countries and/or parts of Europe have been published recently [11], [12], [13], [14],

[15] and [16]. However, macro-regional experiences, including those of the Baltic Sea Region (BSR), are much less known even though the BSR is a pioneer of MSP cooperation on a sea-wide scale [6] and [7], and Poland was the first Baltic Sea country to develop a new legal framework for MSP in 2003. Thus, these experiences can be of interest to the wider public. MSP was initiated about 14 years ago in the Baltic Sea area with the BaltCoast MG-132 mouse project, which was the first to formulate the concept of MSP and to propose basic MSP principles. The first political document that mentions MSP was the Declaration of Ministers responsible for spatial planning and development in the BSR countries of 2001 [17]. MSP in the BSR is linked inseparably with the cooperation of these ministers known as Vision and Strategies around the Baltic Sea (VASAB 2010). In 2001, the ministers also instructed spatial planners to “include off-shore and landside coastal areas” explaining that “growing spatial conflicts in coastal waters /…/ show a need to apply instruments of spatial planning” [17].