Country information
Basic facts on marine waters
- Territorial sea (12 nm zone): 8,783 km²
- Exclusive Economic Zone: 19,736 km²
National practices
- Study of conditions of spatial development of Polish sea areas
- BaltSeaPlan Findings
- Transboundary management of transitional waters – Code of conduct and good practice examples
- The overarching strategy of spatial development of Poland
- German-Polish Spatial Planning Portal
- Interministerial Group on Maritime Policy
- MSP of Polish Sea Areas: Maritime spatial plan for the inland maritime waters, territorial sea and exclusive economic zone in 1:200 000 scale [Draft version v3 (08.08.2019)]
Overview of MSP related maritime uses
Current main uses:
| Ports | Oil and gas |
| Scientific research | Nature conservation |
| Coastal protection | Cables and pipelines |
| Tourism and leisure | Underwater cultural heritage |
Which marine spatial plans exist?
Name of the plan |
Maritime Spatial Plan of the Polish Sea Areas in 1:200 000 scale |
|---|---|
Scale of the plan |
National |
Pre-planning |
Status: Completed |
Analysis for planning |
Status: Completed |
Development of the management plan |
Status: Completed |
Completion of the management plan |
Status: Underway |
Approval of the management plan |
Status: N/A |
Implementation of the management plan |
Status: N/A |
Revision of the management plan |
Status: N/A |
National authority in charge of MSP |
Ministry of Maritime Economy and Inland Navigation, Maritime Office in Gdynia and Maritime Office in Szczecin
The Ministry has the responsibility of the legislation, adoption and international cooperation of MSP in Poland, while the Maritime Offices will have the responsibility of the implementation of the plan. Additionally, the Maritime Offices have an important role in the preparation of the plan |
Financing |
National budget and co-financing by the European Union’s Social Fund under the Operational Programme Knowledge Education Development 2014-2020 |
Time required to complete the plans |
About nine months |
Drivers of MSP |
Support of sustainable development in the maritime sector with the economic, social and environmental aspects taken into account, including the issues of improving the state of environment and resilience to climate change; national security and defense; ensuring coordination of subjects acting in the sea area and forms of using the sea, coherent management of the marine and coastal areas and their resources; increasing the share of the maritime sector in the GDP and employment in the sector; strengthening the position and competitiveness of Polish seaports |
Stakeholder participation |
Yes: four national meetings, several sectoral meetings, three international meetings |
Sectors included in planning |
Transportation; defense and national security; technical infrastructure; exploration, prospecting and extraction of minerals; coastal protection; environmental and nature conservation; producing and storing renewable energy; space reserved for future use; multi-functional economic growth (specific designation for the Gulf of Gdańsk only); environmentally-conditioned local development (specific designation for Puck Bay only); artificial islands, installations and structures; cultural heritage; fisheries; aquaculture; tourism, sport and recreation |
Relation to coastal management |
MSP has to be approved by coastal regions and municipalities |
Relation to marine protected area management |
Poland follows the HELCOM-VASAB guiding principles of spatial development of the sea areas (2012), one of which is the so-called ecosystem approach, demanding inter-sectoral and sustainable management of human activities and whose aim is to achieve a good ecological status of the Baltic Sea environment
The ecosystem approach is also underlined in the Polish “Act on sea areas of Poland and maritime administration” of 21 March 1991. Coastal and marine protected areas are taken into consideration in the Polish MSP on the basis of this Act as well as the “Ministerial ordinance on required scope of MSPs in their textual and graphic parts” Accordingly, the plan should decide on prohibitions and injunctions in the use of MPAs and include the already approved arrangements of the conservation plans of national and landscape parks, nature reserves, Natura 2000 and other forms of protection |
Plan approval |
Council of Ministers |
Legal status of the plan |
Regulatory |
Plan revision |
Yes, revision every ten years |
Performance monitoring and evaluation |
Not defined in the legislation |
Legal framework
The main legal act regarding MSP is the Act on sea areas of the Republic of Poland and the maritime administration of 21 March 1991.
In order to implement Directive 2014/89/EU, the Polish Parliament amended the Act on 4 September 2015 regarding, inter alia, MSP procedure in Poland. Regulations concerning MSP are placed in Chapter 9: “Maritime spatial planning in maritime internal waters, territorial sea and exclusive economic zone”. This chapter describes the whole procedure, basis and principles of developing maritime spatial plans in Poland.
The supporting law is the Ministerial ordinance on required scope of MSPs in their textual and graphic parts.
Contact
Ministry of Infrastructure
Department of Maritime Economy
Ms. Natalia Zając – Head of the Integrated Development and Maritime Spatial Planning Unit
ul. Chałubińskiego 4/6
00-928 Warsaw, Poland