‘The Hare and the Tortoise’: Lessons from Baltic Sea and Mediterranean Sea governance

Charlène Jouanneau and Jesper Raakjær

Marine Policy, 2014, vol. 50, issue PB, 331-338

Abstract: Commonly, the Baltic Sea is pictured as a proactive region with a long-standing tradition for cooperation and surrounded by the “greenest” EU countries. In contrast, southern countries often suffer from the “Mediterranean Syndrome” in which the heterogenous socio political situation is given as the “proof” that cooperation would not work. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive adopted by European Union in 2008 is an important step towards ecosystem-based marine management and provides a legal document suggesting marine regions as a scale for cooperation. In this paper, we aim to explore stakeholders׳ perspectives on key factors for good governance at the regional sea level covering the Eastern Baltic States and the south of France. We targeted a broad panel of professionals from different sectors with a political, economic or societal importance in the respective seas. We suggest that Baltic and Mediterranean stakeholders are going through very different stages of governance adjustment fitting the purpose of ecosystem-based marine management. Baltic institutions are well established, which in some way prevents structural analysis of whether the current governance model is the most appropriate reaching GES. In the Mediterranean, the EU strategies faces institutional challenges, which is leading stakeholders to think “out of the box” about what is really needed for implementing ecosystem-based marine management for this sea. It is suggested that a golden opportunity exists at present in the Mediterranean to create a regional platform of cooperation, not only to fit the MSFD implementation, but also to improve governance of the Mediterranean Sea and its environmental status.

Keywords: Governance; Regionalisation; Baltic; Mediterranean; Stakeholders; Participation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:marpol:v:50:y:2014:i:pb:p:331-338

DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2014.03.006

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