There is room for improvement in national marine monitoring programmes, according to the European Commission’s assessment published on Tuesday 4 April of the 2020 reports submitted by Member States under Article 11 of the EU’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive (2008/56/EC, the so-called MSFD).
Member States are required to report to the Commission on the different stages of their Marine Strategy in order to assess the state of their seas and to set targets. They must also establish and implement monitoring programmes and take measures to achieve or maintain ‘good environmental status’.
The Commission’s analysis, accompanied by a detailed report from the Joint Research Centre (JRC), shows that despite the efforts made since the previous assessment six years ago, there are still information gaps that do not allow for an accurate assessment of how far Member States are from their environmental objectives or desired level of quality for the marine environment.
By filling these gaps, it will be possible to better assess the effectiveness of measures taken to address the various environmental problems affecting the state of coastal and marine waters, such as pollution, overfishing and degradation of biodiversity and habitats, the Commission stresses.
Cooperation and coordination with other Member States in the same marine region should also be strengthened.
On the upside, the assessment shows good consistency with the monitoring requirements of other EU policies, such as the Common Fisheries Policy, and with the EU Habitats (92/43/EEC) and Birds (2009/147/EC) Directives.
The assessment of the national programmes of measures to implement in order to achieve good environmental status of marine waters will be published in 2024.
See the Commission’s communication: https://aeur.eu/f/67a
See the JRC technical report: https://aeur.eu/f/67b (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)