Support study for an impact assessment for a follow-up to the EU ICZM Recommendation (2002/413/EC)

In 2011, the European Commission launched a review of the EU ICZM Recommendation, with a view to a follow-up proposal. An impact assessment was conducted to explore needs and options for future EU action on ICZM and to assess potential social, economic and environmental consequences that new initiatives proposed by the European Commission may have. This important activity implied a wide variety of initiatives, including the “Support study for an impact assessment for a follow-up to the EU ICZM Recommendation”. The study provides an analysis of the impacts of three different options (ICZM Programme, ICZM new Recommendation and ICZM Directive) for a follow-up on the current Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) Recommendation of 2002. The study provides an analysis of the existing situation and trends (the baseline). Based on this, the study formulates the key problems to be ad-dressed by a possible follow-up initiative. The study establishes the key objectives to be delivered by these follow-up actions and elaborates on how meeting these objectives will assist to address the key problems that have been identified. The study then elaborates on the identified options for addressing the objectives. Based on the above, the study analyses the main impacts from the possible follow-up options, focusing on the most important impacts and seeking to provide an assessment that is as quantitative as possible. Lastly, the study compares the impacts of the different options and provides reflections on appropriate monitoring and indicator schemes. Climate change issues and implication of the different options for climate change adaptation are addressed by the study, too. In particular, according to the approach adopted by the study:

• “Improved resilience to risks and climate change” is one of the expected environmental benefits (4 in total) of an increased ICZM implementation that is assessed for the three options;
• “Costs of rising sea level following from climate change if no further action is taken” is one of the factors used to categorise Member States according to coastal pressure. This is used to evaluate expected positive impacts of the three options, assuming that higher coastal pressure also imply larger expected benefits of ICZM.