PERMAGOV sets out to improve EU marine governance so that it can better meet the goals and objectives established in the European Green Deal related to enhancing renewable marine energy, decarbonizing maritime transport, protecting marine life and reducing marine plastic pollution. The EU Green Deal is a vision that brings together social, economic, and sustainability targets and places equal emphasis on each of these. The current largely fragmented nature of EU marine governance needs to evolve toward a more cross-cutting and agile arrangement, one that is in sync with wider developments taking place at sea, at shores and on land. Changing and innovating marine governance itself is complex and challenging as decision-making and implementation to sustainably use the marine environment involves a multitude of actors operating across various governance levels and across social, economic and sustainability domains. Moreover, different marine sectors, such as transport and energy or nature conservation, have their own governance frameworks, collaborations between actors, strategic priorities and knowledge needs. PERMAGOV aims to contribute to changing and innovating marine governance to achieve the EU Green Deal objectives for marine energy, maritime transport, marine life, and marine plastics, by piloting a multi-level governance approach for across various regional seas and national waters around Europe. A central component of the EU Green Deal approach to governance, and thus also of PERMAGOV, is to incorporate e-governance and digital strategies to improve compliance and innovation through better monitoring, simulation, multi-party marine spatial planning, and data-informed decision-making.
