Status: Poland submitted a draft report on progress towards a national ICZM strategy in Poland to the European Commission on 11 April 2006, followed by an official statement regarding reporting to the ICZM Recommendation from the Ministry of Trasport and Construction, Department of Spatial Planning and Architecture on 28 April 2006.
No strategy has yet been developed and a national stocktaking has not been conducted. The main reasons for that is lack of financial resources and some political changes which have been taking place in Poland lately. The lack of recognition of ICZM importance on central governmental level resulted in lack of resources and support for continuous work towards ICZM implementation.
The work to formulate the strategy began in 2005, when the Department of Spatial Planning and Architecture of the Ministry of Transport and Construction (formerly the Ministry of Infrastructure) was appointed as a leading unit for ICZM issues in Poland. The official nomination of this national unit as responsible for the EU ICZM Recommendation in Poland formed a solid and indispensable basis for its implementation.
A national stakeholder conference was organised by that Ministry at which a working paper "Assumptions for the policy of coastal zone management: Towards a national strategy of integrated coastal zone management" was presented. Additionally, progress indicators as developed by the Working Group on Indicators and Data (WG-ID) were tested during the above mentioned conference.
Any specific measures integrated in ICZM to secure or improve the livelihood/employment has not been developed yet, but the vision of development has been outlined, focusing on development of ports and maritime transport and dependent areas.
There is no doubt that ICZM could provide added-value in terms of better co-ordination of efforts to implement sectoral national and EU legislation in Poland and by that to improve management in the coastal zone. However, its role is still weak, which is more a result of relatively low priority given to the coastal issues, including the environment of the Baltic Sea, by the Polish government, rather than the lack of recognition of concept of ICZM itself.
Reporting Institution
Ministry of Transport and Construction
Department of Spatial Planning and Architecture
(Formerly known as the Ministry of Infrastructure)
According to the decision of the Committee of European Integration of the Polish Council of Ministers of 22 February 2005 the Polish Ministry of Transport and Construction has been appointed as a responsible national body for coordination of implementation of the integrated coastal zone management in Poland.