sou · GWB348EN · 2009-01-01 00:00:00 — should work to ensure that implementation of the BSAP is intensified in line with the measures that are indicated in the framework for the pilot project. (): The organisation, structure and priorities are being reviewed in the period up to the summer of 2008. should work for cooperation between the , to bring about a transfer of the political mandate for environment issues to HELCOM. EU Policy: A first step towards an integrated EU policy was initiated by a communication from Commission to Parliament and Council during 2007. Member States are recommended to examine how to introduce the policy nationally and to submit reports on this to the Commission during 2009. should work to ensure that the new EU policy has a clearer focus on the environment. Intergovernmental cooperation on the environment and a Swedish .. The CAP: The EU budget review during 2009 is to focus par- ticularly on agricultural policy. The CAP is renegotiated approximately every tenth year. The most recent reorganisation took place in 2002 and was introduced in the period up to 2005 (in certain cases up to 2007). In the Commis- sion issued a communication to the Member States on the fol- low-up of the renewed CAP, known as the health check. should work for regionalisation and greater concern for the environment within the framework of the CAP, particularly as regards the possibilities of reducing the run-off of nutrients from agricultural land. should elaborate clear national positions to be taken up within the framework of the processes and timings that have been mentioned here. The CFP: The CFP is to be assessed during 2012. should work for regionalisation and increased concern for the environment within the framework of the CFP. should elaborate clear national positions to be taken up in preparation for the assessment of the CFP. The EU cohesion policy and structural funds – Objective 3 Ter- ritorial cooperation: Discussions on the future cohesion policy will be initiated with the budget review in 2009. should work to ensure that funds for the implementation of environment cooperation within the framework of the cohesion policy (within Objective 3 Territorial cooperation, formerly Interreg) are to some extent re-allocated and managed region- ally through a committee within HELCOM during the pro- gramme period after 2013. Other environment : should work to ensure that other organisations that fund projects should some of their financial support to a joint environment fund for the Baltic Sea. SOU 2008:48 Intergovernmental cooperation on the environment and a Swedish .. Figure 3.1 Time-line that shows when it is important to act within the framework for different policy areas and organisations Funding for the forthcoming task of the Swedish EPA being the competent authority for implementation of the MSD should pri- marily be met by reallocating priorities within the Agency. Bearing in mind the important of the issue, new resources must also be allocated to the Agency to the tune of approximately mil- lion per year. 4 Planning of Swedish sea areas 4.1Legislation of relevance for spatial planning The conditions for the application of Swedish legislation affecting spatial planning vary as regards internal waters (within the baseline), the territorial sea and the Swedish economic zone (see Figure 1.7) Different national and international policies and rules of law govern the use of the different parts of the sea area. How far-reaching planning of the Swedish areas can be intro- duced is in part dependent on the international laws and other international agreements that apply to the area. In Chapter 1 an account has been given of the laws and conventions of greatest importance for Swedish sea areas. A number of these must be taken into account in spatial planning, since they entail both limitations and opportunities in the process, such as the Conven- tion on the of the Sea, the EUs Common Fisheries Policy, Swedish fishing legislation, IMO regulations, etc. Some of the Swedish laws and parts thereof that have specific relevance in the context of spatial planning and that may in the long term require certain additions or amendments in the regulation of plan- ning are described below. Different parts of the chapter give exam- ples of the extents to which this will be necessary. 4.1.1Application of the Environmental Code in sea areas The basic provisions of the Environmental Code apply up to the boundary of the territorial sea, as well as also to a number of structures and activities in the economic zone including the conti- nental shelf. There is a clear link between the Environmental Code and the Planning and Act (PBA), in that the management provisions laid down in Chapters 3 and 4 of the Environmental Planning of Swedish sea areas Code are concretised in municipal comprehensive plans. The Envi- ronmental Code must be used as the point of departure in weigh- ing the pros and cons as between exploitation and conservation measures. The management provisions of the Environmental Code are also applicable in the economic zone. Shoreline protection includes the environment out to 100 metres from the shore, but in a number of areas has been extended to 300 metres. environments can also be protected by the creation of reserves. County administrative boards and municipalities have the right of initiative and decision-making as regards the creation of reserves. The and supervision of Natura 2000 sites, the EU network of protected areas, affects a number of authorities, including the county administrative boards. Natura 2000 sites are determined by the Government. In the Environmental Code there are rules of consideration which, as far as possible, protect the public interest against certain harmful interventions. Within Swedish territory, the management provisions are laid down in municipal comprehensive plans, which are based on background material from the competent national authorities and on the collective planning material of the county administrative boards, as well material produced by the municipali- ties themselves. The management provisions, which are defined in Chapter 3 of the Environmental Code, contain rules that must be applied when striking a balance between exploitation and conser- vation. Areas of national interest must be particularly protected. Chapter 4 specifies special provisions for certain designated areas that need special protection. Among them are also included provi- sions about Nature 2000 sites, which are classified as being of national importance. In addition, permission in accordance with Chapter 7 of the Environmental Code is required to operate busi- ness activities or take action on Natura 2000 sites. The county administrative board is responsible for monitoring observance of national interests. 4.1.2The application of the Planning and Act in sea areas The application of the Planning and Act (PBA) extends to include the territorial sea. The primary and long-term purpose of planning emerges from Chapter 2 Section 2 of the PBA. Planning of Swedish sea areas pose is to promote a purposeful structure of built-up areas, green belts, routes of communications and other constructions. It must also promote good environmental conditions and long-lasting and effective management of land and water areas, energy resources and raw materials. Planning must also be based on the natural and cul- tural values existing in the built-up environment and in the land- scape. From the social point of view, good living conditions must also be promoted. The fundamental management principles to be found in the Environmental Code form the basis of the application of the subsequent rules of consideration, prohibitions and rules governing the balancing of interests. The fundamental principles are: Management assessments relate to land, water and the physical environment in general. A long-term view must be taken. The point of departure is ecological, social and socioeconomic aspects. The most suitable use of an area shall be given precedence. Suitability depends on the nature of the areas and on existing needs. The aim must be multi-purpose use. The regulations for comprehensive plans in Chapter 1, Section 3 of the PBA are also of relevance to spatial planning. In the comprehensive plan, public interests as well as environmental and risk factors in the use of land and water areas must be taken into account. When reporting, areas of national interests shall, in par- ticular, be specified under Chapter 3 or Chapter 4 of the Environ- mental Code. The basic characteristics as regards intended use of land and water areas must be highlighted in the plan, as well as the way in which the municipality intends to satisfy the stated national interests, and observe applicable environmental quality standards. When proposals for a comprehensive plan, or for modification of an existing plan, are drawn up, the municipality must consult the county administrative board as well as any regional planning authorities and other municipalities whose interests are affected. Authorities, associations and individuals whose interests are affected must be given the opportunity to have their say. Planning of Swedish sea areas increase participation and citizen involvement has been an impor- tant question in planning in recent years. The concept of the shelf relates as a geographical term to the continuation of the land mass under the sea. The states rights on the shelf are limited to natural resources. Wrecks lying on the shelf (for example, the wreck of the Estonia that lies on shelf) are thus outside the jurisdiction of the state. Government permission is required as regards rights to explore and extract natural resources within the area, as also for the construction and use of artificial and for the construction and use of equipment for commer- cial purposes and other constructions (e.g. platforms). Govern- ment permission is also required for laying submarine cables or pipelines. An environmental impact assessment must be included in any application for a permit. The Act provides exceptions for prin- ciples of international law, such as freedom of navigation in the economic zone and overflying rights. Supervision of the compli- ance to regulations and conditions for a permit in accordance with the Shelf Act is exercised by Geological Sur- vey (SGU). Other states have the right to lay submarine cables on the states shelf but conditions may be attached to the permit with a view to protecting the environment. Arti- cles 58 and 79 of the UN Convention on the of the Sea pro- vide that all states have the right to lay submarine cables and pipe- lines on the shelf. Subject to the right to undertake rea- sonable measures to prevent, limit and control pollution from pipelines, Article 79 (2) of the UN of the Sea Convention provides that states may not prevent the laying of pipelines. However, the provision gives the state relatively wide scope, on environmental grounds, to make it difficult for another state to lay pipelines on the states shelf, and even to prevent it from doing so. The state does not have the same scope to limit the laying of other states submarine cables as it has with regard to pipelines. Planning of Swedish sea areas 4.2A planning system for Swedish sea areas I propose that a planning system for Swedish sea areas should be established in accordance with the following: Regional bodies should be given responsibility for planning in the territorial sea and in sea areas within the baseline. A government authority should be given responsibility for planning in the Swedish eco- nomic zone and an overarching responsibility for planning in the whole of the Swedish sea area. The of a plan- ning system thus requires amendment in respect of planning, as regards the division of responsibilities between the municipali- ties and the regional level, and a new role for central govern- ment. The ecosystem approach should be a guiding principle in spatial planning. It should be based on plans similar to the comprehensive plans that exist for land areas. spatial plans should, however, contain binding compo- nents in the form of fixed zones for exploitation and protection. A hierarchy of decision-making should be established under which regional spatial plans shall be subject to statutory review, in accordance with certain criteria, by the authority appointed as the competent spatial planning authority. spatial plans drawn up by the government authority for the economic zone should be ratified by the Government. When the principles of the planning system have been estab- , I propose that the Government appoint a legislation and implementation inquiry to consider in detail the question of legislation and responsibility. The laws primarily affected are the Planning and Act, the Environmental Code, the Con- tinental Shelf Act and the Swedish Exclusive Economic . The Local Government Act is affected as regards the changes in division of responsibility between various societal actors proposed by the Inquiry. Sea areas are exploited for a large number of activities that are con- stantly increasing in extent. This creates problems in the environ- mental context since there are evident risks that conflicts of inter- Planning of Swedish sea areas est, between representatives of those who exploit and those who conserve the resources of the sea, may in future increase. Despite this, we currently have no system for spatial planning that promotes good management of natural resources and the develop- ment of appropriate structures at sea. Achieving this requires knowledge and well-developed tools that can contribute to a sys- tematic and transparent process for weighing different interests against one another. The need to develop a planning system with such a function has therefore become topical. A planning system must ultimately serve to improve the state of the environ- ment, and the ecosystem approach must therefore be a guiding principle in the planning process. The central tool available for general physical planning in is the municipal comprehensive plan. The comprehensive plan and its accompanying area regulations and detailed develop- ment plans must constitute a transparent basis for political decision-taking. The comprehensive plan is most important for assessing where interests overlap and provides background material for politicians to be able to weigh the consequences and take decisions in the event of conflicts of interest. The comprehensive plan helps when weighing public interests against one another and hence promotes the involvement of stakeholders and citizen participation. County administrative boards represent the govern- ments sectoral interests in the planning process by virtue of their right to review plans. The comprehensive plan is not in itself binding but is merely a guiding principle and it is not primarily developed to be applicable in sea areas. In the formal sense, however, it includes them out to the boundary between the territorial sea and the economic zone. According to Swedish planning tradition, central government has limited influence over planning, as regards both land and sea areas. Decisions on national interests nonetheless entail a form of central government influence in planning. While the municipalities are currently formally responsible for making assessments in waters areas and the territorial sea, the Government has the ultimate responsibility in the economic zone. There are no nation- ally determined objectives for planning in waters and the territorial sea, because of the long tradition of decentralised plan- ning in . Municipal planning in sea areas is cur- rently very incomplete. Furthermore, the level of ambition varies across the country and hence planning appears fragmented. Planning of Swedish sea areas division of responsibility is inappropriate since no specific demands are made on the municipalities to plan their sea areas. The Government has not designated any authorities as compe- tent for matters relating to the economic zone. Many authorities have remits within the territorial sea and economic zone but there is no coordinated planning. There is thus no holistic picture of the existing claims and interests regarding sea areas. In cases where individual enterprises intend to conduct operations in sea areas, they are obliged to produce summaries of the interests and other conditions that affect the area as part of the permit assessment procedure. Neither has any specific actor a responsibility to disseminate information about what is taking place in the area as regards plan- ning and prioritisation. In many cases, sea areas can be described as something of a no mans land with poor public insight, despite the fact that activities in the sea area and the state of the envi- ronment both affect the public in important respects. Furthermore, there is no model for cooperation with neigh- bouring countries nor for how such cooperation should be developed over time as regards spatial planning. Examples of cooperation in the field of spatial planning exist in the form of EU projects, by means of which experimental approaches highlight how cooperation between neighbouring countries can be undertaken as regards planning issues. Nonetheless, no developed system for spatial planning exists in any of the neighbour- ing countries today, with the exception of , which has come relatively far in its development of such a system. Ongoing processes in other countries to develop spatial planning must be taken into consideration, therefore, so that in the longer term they can be harmonised to an extent agreed on by the coun- tries involved. is there currently any overarching system for all sea-related activities, i.e. where management is integrated with spatial planning in order to create a comprehensive basis for deci- sion-making. In the longer term, environment work should be gradually integrated with spatial planning. The possibil- ity to develop such an integrated system can arise in step with the development and improved coordination of spatial planning and the development of more and more planning material as regards e.g. conditions on the sea bottom. In the longer term, spatial planning can thus be refined. Planning of Swedish sea areas phase, it is more a matter of establishing a system for comprehen- sive planning in order to identify areas where interests overlap and where conflicts can arise as regards sea areas and resources. A planning system for the sea areas should be designed to take into account both exploitation and conservation aspects affecting the environment. There are today a number of areas at sea that are protected by different international conventions, but none that have explicitly been assessed as areas which are or may become particularly exposed to conflicts of interest. As regards environ- mental concern, there are the World Heritage Convention, the Espoo Convention, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the EU Birds Directive and Habitats Directive with its Natura 2000 sites. Through these conventions and directives, EU Member States have a duty to create areas for the promotion of biological diversity at sea. However, implementation of these conventions is limited when the adjoining mechanisms for supervision and control have in many cases not been adopted by the Member States. Taken as a whole, they nevertheless constitute an embryo for planning and zoning of sea areas, based on the ecosystem approach. They need, however, to be complemented by background material in which human activities are highlighted in a process of considera- tion, if we are to be able to talk about satisfactory planning. Planning is politics and, as such, is neither neutral nor objective. A planning system for sea areas is synonymous with a basis for decision-making that simplifies the real state of affairs. The plan- ning system must have a high degree of transparency. A planning system for the sea is a tool for officials and politicians as well as an opportunity for the general public to obtain an insight into, and to influence, what political priorities are adopted over developments in the environment, as regards both exploitation and con- servation. The planning system can, in combination with a clear organisation of the implementation stage, contribute to well- grounded decisions and help give these decisions democratic legitimacy. Purely conceptually, the term planning system is used in dif- ferent ways in different sectors and different countries. There are definitions that particularly highlight the ecosystem approach and Planning of Swedish sea areas the ambition to protect the seas, but there are also definitions with clearly sector-neutral implications. The point of departure for the has been that the environ- ment needs both protection and conservation measures, and for that reason the ecosystem approach is a self-evident starting-point. Without the ambition ultimately to protect natural values, the development of a planning system is rather superfluous. At the same time, the importance is emphasised of weighing environ- mental considerations against the human activities that must take place at sea. , windpower expansion, tourism and outdoor life are particularly important and demand a great deal of space. There are a number of weaknesses in the current Swedish planning system relating to sea areas. One weakness is that municipal com- prehensive planning rarely extends further out to sea than to areas where there are and built-up areas. Another weakness is that we lack forms for planning on a greater geographical scale than is encompassed by individual municipalities. In some cases there is municipal cooperation on planning, but that does not occur on a regular basis. Satisfactory planning of the sea areas also requires a change in the division of responsibility between central government and municipalities. In contrast to what applies on land, central govern- ment should have an overarching responsibility for planning in the entire Swedish sea area. Planning in the territorial sea should no longer be conducted by municipalities but instead be undertaken on a regional basis. The reason is that many activities at sea extend over large areas and in many cases are mobile (e.g. and fishing), which points to the need for planning on a large scale. Even the fact that the seas are not static and that e.g. pollution rapidly spreads emphasises the need for larger-scale planning. In the introductory stage, the regions should be at least the size of counties and can in future, in step with any new regional formations, become significantly larger. That means that it may be a matter of producing a maximum of 14 regional plans instead of a host of plans, which would be the case if the municipalities continued to have the responsibility. Planning of Swedish sea areas That is not to say that in certain cases there is not a need also to plan on a smaller scale, above all in the inner archipelago. Participation is important for legitimacy when different inter- ests and needs are to be weighed against one another in inshore sea areas, where civil interests are judged to be greatest. In light of this, it is proposed that the regional bodies should be given responsibil- ity for planning these sea areas. Well developed procedures for consultation need to be introduced simultaneously with regional spatial planning. Regional planning should also be extended to apply to sea areas within the baseline. The reason is that the baseline in certain cases extends so far from the coast that quite large areas of open sea are contained inside it, for example and the areas to the south and north of (see Figure 1.7). Even in areas with an outer archipelago, there are large areas of open sea within the base- line, for example in the , , and archipelagos.