Transboundary Planning in the European Atlantic

The Transboundary Planning in the European Atlantic (TPEA) Project was part-funded by DG MARE with the objective of investigating the delivery of a commonly-agreed approach to cross-border maritime spatial planning (MSP) in the European Atlantic region. TPEA was a pilot initiative, bringing together Government bodies, research centres and data agencies from the UK, Portugal, Spain, and Ireland. The work of the TPEA partnership focused on three key aspects of MSP: stakeholder engagement; governance and legal frameworks, and data management.

Two pilot sites (east coast Irish Sea: Ireland-Northern Ireland and the Gulf of Cadiz: Spain-Portugal) were used to trial the approaches and methodologies implemented by the TPEA partnership. Key outputs include a Good Practice Guide which presents the key lessons and principles (illustrated with examples) to emerge from the TPEA project.

Project partners

• University of Liverpool (UK) – Lead Partner
• Department of the Environment, Northern Ireland (UK)
•  Coastal and Marine Research Centre, University College Cork (IE)
• Universidad de Sevilla (ES)
• Instituto Espanol de Oceanografia (ES)
• Direcao Geral de Politica do Mar (PT)
• Universidade de Aveiro (PT)
• Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentation y Medio Ambiente (ES)
• CEDEX (ES)
• Universidade do Algarve - CCMAR (PT)