12/03/2026 Summary: NESB Project Expert Workshop on MariPark Governance
While the Ocean Days 2026 were in full swing a parallel expert workshop took place on 4 March 2026 at the ENGIE head office in Brussels to discuss governance challenges for Mariparks and their alignment with the ecosystem-based approach (EBA). The event was organised by Mantis Consulting and IMDC, with support from Blue Cluster, bringing together industry representatives, policy makers, and planning/environmental impact assessment (EIA) experts to exchange views on the feasibility and governance needs of Mariparks in the North Sea and Baltic Sea context.
Setting the scene
MariParks were presented as an enabling concept and planning approach to structure multi-use at sea, creating clarity for innovators and investors while placing ecosystem value and long-term resilience at the centre. This requires more than technical design: MariParks depend on governance choices that can bridge sectoral boundaries, coordinate responsibilities, and manage cumulative effects over time. In that context, the EBA Ladder was presented as a practical framework to help translate the EBA into operational choices and performance tracking for Maripark users, and as a potential common “language” to support cooperation, transparency, and comparability across initiatives.
Key takeaways
The EBA Ladder provides a structured way for MariPark users to integrate EBA into business strategy and operations through three pillars (ecosystem insight; targets & measures; transparency & collaboration) and four maturity levels (awareness; managing; integration; transforming).
Participants discussed briefly on the value of the Ladder:
- The Ladder has potential to support MariPark-level assessments for reporting and compliance, and to enable benchmarking and cross-boundary learning, particularly on cumulative impacts between nearby MariParks.
- The Ladder was also discussed as a possible baseline for a tailored legal framework for multi-use/MariParks, rather than repeatedly adapting sector-specific rules.
During the break-out sessions several topics were discussed: barriers for economic actors, incentives to address these barriers and how to implement them to enable effective installation of Mariparks; how to adapt permitting and EIA frameworks for Mariparks and the related governance implications; roles and responsibilities of the different actor groups relevant to Mariparks:
- A MariPark-specific framework was proposed, including moving from single-use concessions to MariPark concession zones, providing longer-term clarity (e.g., 10–20 years) on access rights and permits.
- Incentive options included EU-level guidance (minimum requirements and common formats) to reduce uneven playing fields across countries, and alternative valuation approaches such as credit systems to reflect societal value beyond single-activity return on investment (ROI).
- Several ways to link incentives to performance via the EBA Ladder were suggested: benchmarking, labels/certification, access rules, and an “auction principle” where higher performance unlocks stronger advantages.
- For permitting and EIA, a ‘one permit fits all’ concept for Mariparks with activity-specific addenda was discussed as a way to combine clarity with flexibility.
- To manage cumulative impacts, participants proposed a threshold-based approach, with implications for reconfiguration, mitigation, and/or restoration if thresholds are approached or exceeded.
- Designation of ‘flexible zones’ within Mariparks was proposed where these zones allow for development of low TRL technologies without the requirement of a whole permit application to ensure the needed flexible approach for innovation.
In the closing plenary, participants reflected on the main governance barriers for a sea-basin scale approach and discussed whether and how port governance models could serve as a reference point for MariPark governance.
Next steps
The workshop outcomes will feed into the NESB project’s policy recommendations on Maripark governance and the Maripark Blueprint, including how the EBA Ladder, incentives, and permitting/EIA approaches can jointly enable multi-use while safeguarding ecological resilience.
Further expert exchanges are planned to deepen the discussion on a practical roadmap for Maripark implementation.
More about NESB project work package 4: Multi-use in Practice here.
NESB project is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the project consortium only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
