Evaluation of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) in Europe

Many of Europe's coastal zones face problems of deterioration of their environmental, socio-economic and cultural resources. Since 1996, the European Commission has been working to identify and promote measures to remedy this deterioration and to improve the overall situation in our coastal zones.

Historical Overview

From 1996 to 1999, the Commission operated a Demonstration Programme on Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) designed around a series of 35 demonstration projects and 6 thematic studies. This programme was aimed to:

• Provide technical information about sustainable coastal zone management, and
• Stimulate a broad debate among the various actors involved in the planning, management or use of European coastal zones.

The programme was intended to lead to a consensus regarding the measures necessary in order to stimulate ICZM in Europe.

In 2000, based on the experiences and outputs of the Demonstration Programme the Commission adopted two documents:

1. A Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on "Integrated Coastal Zone Management: A Strategy for Europe" (COM/00/547 of 17 Sept. 2000)
   
2. A Proposal for a European Parliament and Council Recommendation concerning the implementation of Integrated Coastal Zone Management in Europe (COM/00/545 of 8 Sept. 2000). This Recommendation (2002/413/EC) was adopted by Council and Parliament on 30 May 2002.

The Communication explains how the Commission will be working to promote ICZM through the use of Community instruments and programmes.

The Recommendation outlines steps which the Member States should take to develop national strategies for ICZM. Member States were encouraged to submit their National Strategies to the European Commission by February 2006, involve all the coastal stakeholders in their development.

ICZM Expert Group

To support the implementation of the ICZM Recommendation, the Commission facilitates an Expert Group, which held its first meeting on 3 October 2002. Since then, 5 meetings have been hosted by DG Environment in Brussels. Minutes and highlights of each meeting are found below:

1st Meeting, 3 October 2002

Minutes & Participants

2nd Meeting, 18 June 2003

At the 2nd meeting the expert group endorsed a guidance report for the national stocktakes, which the Recommendation calls for in its Chapter III as the first step for its implementation.The meeting also heared a detailed presentation of the Spanish methodological approach to the stocktaking.

Minutes & Participants

3rd Meeting, 22 April 2004

Minutes & Participants

4th Meeting, 24 November 2004

At this meeting, the European Environment Agency (EEA) launched its work towards an assessment of the European coasts. "The Changing Faces of Europe's Coastal Areas" was completed in July 2006. This report provides information on the state of the environment in the coastal areas of Europe, and provides evidence of the need for a more integrated, long-term approach.

Minutes & Participants

5th Meeting, 22 September 2005

In 2005 DG Environment conducted a survey to analyse the responses in the coastal Member States to the EU ICZM Recommendation. The results of the survey are presented in an overall implementation overview.

Highlights of the meeting:

• State of Play of the ICZM Recommendation
• Presentation and Discussion of ICZM Implementation Overview
• Discussion European Stakeholders Forum
• ICZM Evaluation, Reporting Guidance
• Green Paper on European Maritime Policy
• Progress Working Group Indicators and Data
• Progress towards the State of the European Coasts report - EEA

Minutes & Participants, National Reporting Guidance

6th Meeting, 1 June 2006

Highlights of the meeting:

• Presentations of Member States of national processes to implement the EU ICZM Recommendation
• Reports submitted by Member States further to the ICZM Recommendation (Green Paper Maritime Policy)
• Commission Evaluation of Implementation of ICZM Recommendation in Europe
• Information and Data for ICZM

Minutes & Participants

7th Meeting, Fall 2006

The main action point will be to discuss the Final Report and Recommendations drawn from the independent Evaluation of ICZM in Europe and decide what action to take towards a report to the European Parliament and Council at the end of 2006.

Working Group on ICZM Indicators and Data

The working group on indicators and data established 2 set of indicators, one aimed to measure progress in ICZM, the other one mesuring sustainability on the coast. Progress in this work has been reported to the expert group at each meeting. The reports of the working group can be downloaded at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/iczm/home.htm. For discussion and orientations for further work given by the expert group, please refer to the minutes of expert group meetings.

For further information on ICZM in the European Union, please visit the European Commission DG Environment site on Coastal Policy, http://ec.europa.eu/environment/iczm/home.htm