Publication Abstract

Agreeing EU Common criteria and standards in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive

Stuart Rogers

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive requires member states (MS) to put in place appropriate measures to achieve good environmental status, however it differs from many directives in that it requires MS to prepare a Marine Strategy.  The Directive recognises that managing human activities to reduce the impacts of human activities is fundamental to the successful implementation of Marine Strategies, so commits MS to an ecosystem-based approach to the management of human activities, so that they can ‘enable the sustainable use of marine goods and services by present and future generations’.

This talk summarises the current activity in Europe to describe how GES could be determined, based on pre-determined descriptors of good status, and the attributes and thresholds that might be relevant in order to achieve it.

It also highlights some of the difficult decisions that remain for MS, particularly in the selection of targets and reference points for the selected indicators, and the availability of data and evidence to assess progress towards them. 

A key feature of the Directive is its’ application to broad scale Regions or Sub-Regions. While developing their individual Strategies, Member States are expected to collaborate, using existing mechanisms such as the Regional Seas Conventions, to ensure a consistent approach so that the determination of Good Environmental Status is equivalent across the region.  Some of those links are already well embedded but many others are still to be made.