This focus group explores the policy, governance, and regulatory conditions required to enable offshore wind development in the Adriatic–Ionian region. Discussions focus on what currently slows down implementation and what is needed to create predictable, investable, and cooperative frameworks across countries—particularly on maritime spatial planning, permitting, and institutional coordination.

Participants

• Quadruple helix stakeholders involved in regulatory and policy frameworks for offshore wind, such as:
• National ministries responsible for energy, environment or maritime spatial planning
• Regulatory authorities and public administration bodies
• Offshore wind policy experts
• Researchers in energy policy and governance
• Industry representatives dealing with permitting and regulatory compliance
• NGOs and civil society organizations focused on environmental governance

Role of the group

• analyse permitting frameworks
• maritime spatial planning
• regulatory harmonisation across Adriatic-Ionian countries.

Goals

Harmonise regulatory approaches; share permitting best practices; develop policy recommendations.

Highlights

Participants identified a set of structural governance bottlenecks that currently limit offshore wind progress across the region.

• Fragmented / underdeveloped regulatory frameworks for offshore wind in several countries.
• Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) not yet fully aligned with offshore renewable deployment needs.
• Slow and complex permitting, increasing uncertainty and timelines.
• Limited coordination between responsible ministries/agencies.
• Need for stronger cross-border alignment and harmonisation to support cooperation at basin level.

Results and implications for ADRIONWIND

The focus group's input confirms that offshore wind acceleration in the region depends on systemic regulatory improvement and clearer governance coordination, including predictability for developers and stronger cooperation across Adriatic–Ionian countries. These findings feed directly into the strategy components on enabling policy frameworks and administrative capacity.