10.5.2023
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
C 165/7
The latest compilation of elements, features and parameters monitored across the EU for all MSFD descriptors has identified monitoring gaps.
From the information reported, it is difficult to assess the links with other MSFD reporting obligations (namely Articles 8, 9, 10 and 13), particularly because good environmental status, targets and measures have not been reported in a sufficiently concrete and measurable way in previous MSFD reports, as highlighted in the Commission’s 2022 assessment.
Moreover, common monitoring programmes across sectors and regions are inconsistently reported.
This indicates that Member States are not yet making the most of the links with other sectors either at national or regional level, leading to inefficiencies.
Work to address those gaps should be given priority by Member States at all implementation levels of the Directive.
These recommendations should help Member States to fill the gaps and develop efficient monitoring programmes that will ultimately contribute to achieving their environmental objectives.
A clean and healthy marine and coastal environment is not only a legal requirement or a moral obligation to future generations.
It is also the necessary basis of all maritime activities and an essential condition for the sustainability of key economic sectors, such as fisheries and tourism.
This makes protection and systematic monitoring of the marine and coastal environment a truly meaningful investment, including from an economic point of view.
The Commission is aware that monitoring environmental parameters to assess the marine environment is an enormous task.
It covers numerous aspects, ranging across many marine species, habitats and multiple anthropogenic pressures and impacts.
The efforts made by Member States are remarkable and despite the shortcomings identified, it should be recognised that coordinated environmental marine monitoring in the EU under the MSFD and with four Regional Sea Conventions is a globally unique achievement.
As underlined in its report to the European Parliament and the Council on the MSFD implementation in 2020 (36), the Commission considers the Directive a harmonised legal framework that enables constant improvements in data gathering and fosters the design of comprehensive marine monitoring programmes.
In this same report, the Commission also points out that the data collected by Member States – through MSFD monitoring programmes – are often not comparable.
It also points to the fact that those monitoring programmes are not always linked to the targets, and because they are set up before the measures, the connection between the two is often suboptimal.
The Commission maintains that monitoring programmes should measure in a harmonised way the state of the marine environment, the achievement of environmental targets and the effectiveness of measures.
The Commission will integrate these considerations into the ongoing review of the MSFD, while aiming to simplify reporting requirements at the same time.
Ultimately, the data derived from these monitoring programmes are essential to implement the European Green Deal, feeding, as they become available, into the Zero Pollution and the Biodiversity Monitoring Frameworks under the overarching eighth Environment Action Programme (EAP) Monitoring Framework.
Finally, they will also contribute to implementing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, by populating the marine-related headline and other indicators and by facilitating the adaptation of the national biodiversity strategies and action plans.
(36) Report on the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (europa.eu)