Implementation of the Legal Framework for the Management of the Marine Environment of the Aegean Sea

Abstract

The present paper aims to provide an overview of the legal framework relevant to the management approaches of the marine resources in the Mediterranean and in particular in the Aegean Sea. These approaches have evolved from the initial attempts in the framework of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to deal with specific issues, such as marine pollution from land-based sources, based on the Barcelona Convention (the regional sea convention for the Mediterranean). Legal initiatives, deriving from Barcelona Convention, as the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) and the Mediterranean pollution monitoring programme (MEDPOL) during the 1970s, moved to more holistic approaches, such as Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM). Since the 1980s, when Greece became a member state of the European Union, a number of relevant Directives (HD & BD, WFD, MSFD) accelerated the evolution of the management approaches in the Greek coasts of the Aegean Sea. The implementation of these Directives gave birth to new tools for the evaluation of the ecological quality of the marine environment. In parallel, the MAP phase II created synergies with the relevant initiatives of the EU Marine Policy and formulated the Ecosystem Approach (EcAp) towards the Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) for the sustainable management of the marine resources in the Aegean Sea under Greek jurisdiction.