Blue Nature-Based Solutions in marine and coastal EU policies: Challenges, recommendations and policy opportunities throughout the policy cycle

The paper focuses on the use of Nature-based solutions (NBS) in European marine and coastal governance – also called marine or blue NBS. Such solutions appear to be promising tools to deal with interdependent challenges such as climate change adaptation, biodiversity conservation and restoration, and sustainable development. Numerous research projects have demonstrated their utility and investigated the best ways to implement them. In addition, NBS are supported by international networks and agreements, and advocated by actors active at the international and European Union (EU) levels. However, blue NBS are mostly absent from EU policies (directives and regulations) and national, regional and local implementation of those policies. In this paper, barriers to the uptake of NBS at each step of the policy cycle are investigated: agenda-setting, policy formulation, decision-making, policy implementation, and policy evaluation. Policy recommendations and related EU policy opportunities for each of these steps are then presented.