Sea is strategic asset "that must be valued, managed and preserved," highlights Mário Rui Pinho - Communication

Secretaria Regional do Mar e das Pescas

The Regional Secretary for the Sea and Fisheries, Mário Rui Pinho, emphasised today that the Azorean Government "believes in the importance of maritime spatial planning," a "fundamental tool for maritime policies."

"The sea is a crucial strategic asset for the Autonomous Region of the Azores, which must be valued, managed and preserved. The extensive size of the maritime space adjacent to the archipelago, combined with the geostrategic position of the Azores and their wealth of natural resources, are factors that differentiate and boost the regional maritime economy," he highlighted.

Mário Rui Pinho spoke in Ponta Delgada at the opening of the conference "Azores - Reflections on the Law of the Sea and the Urban Simplex."

The sea, he continued, "imposes important challenges and responsibilities in terms of its governance and sustainable management."

He explained: "It is in this context that maritime spatial planning in the Azores emerges as a fundamental mechanism for balancing competing interests and ensuring that society enjoys and benefits from our sea, with a view to enhancing and safeguarding it for present and forthcoming generations. It creates the necessary conditions for the private use of maritime space, without jeopardising common use, based on a coherent, transparent and reasoned decision-making process that allows public entities to implement a coordinated and integrated approach to the occupation of maritime space involving stakeholders."

Mário Rui Pinho recalled that the Regional Government "has a different understanding of the Constitutional Court's decision in Ruling no.484/2022."

The declaration of unconstitutionality, with generally binding force, regarding some rules introduced at the beginning of 2021 in the so-called law of the sea, is a "centralist attitude of the Constitutional Court which, unfortunately, adds up to so many others in previous rulings, once again restricting the competences of autonomous regions," he regretted. 

The Regional Secretary also voiced his "hope" that the new National Government will come round to the National Maritime Spatial Planning Situation Plan for the Azores Subdivision (PSOEM-Açores).

He added: "I emphasise the firm determination of the XIV Regional Government of the Azores, together with the new National Government, in particular the Ministry of the Economy and the Secretary of State for the Sea, to launch a new model of autonomy for the 21st century: an autonomy of cooperation, in which all entities help each other in the pursuit of common goals and the truly shared management between the National Government and autonomous regions will be embodied in the union of the wills of both levels of public power to achieve a fair final solution. This will correspond, albeit with different forms of intervention, to a co-decision of intervention in the planning and management of the regional maritime spaces of the Azores and Madeira."