This report examines how EU Member States involved stakeholders in Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) during the first implementation phase of the MSP Directive.
The study was commissioned to understand differences in stakeholder consultation approaches between Member States and identify good practices going forward. It surveyed 16 Member States and 40 stakeholders across 17 countries.
The research revealed a significant mismatch between how Member States thought they performed in stakeholder engagement and how stakeholders themselves perceived the process, with only about 30% alignment between the two perspectives. 8 Member States used professionally facilitated consensus-building processes and many demonstrated strong ethics around inclusion. However, many Member States retained centralised power during decision-making, with ten limiting inclusion to governmental bodies alone.
The report's core recommendation is to shift from consultation to shared decision-making using procedural justice principles—moving from "power over" to "power with" stakeholders. It emphasizes that when evidence-based best practices are applied, it benefits the quality of decisions, legitimacy of process, stakeholder satisfaction, and quality of outcomes. The research found ambition and strong ethics in many countries, but noted there is still a way to go before effective and just participatory procedures become standard practice across the EU.