Regional Meeting with the Member States Parties to HELCOM following the Assessment of the Commission on the MSFD implementation (Article 12 report)

Transcription

1 Regional Meeting with the Member States Parties to HELCOM following the Assessment of the Commission on the MSFD implementation (Article 12 report) Brussels, May 2014 Conclusions Participants: Lone Munk Soderberg, Tonny Niilonen (DK), Agnes Villman, (EE), Eeva Liisa Poutanen, Maria Laamanen (FIN), Heike Imhoff, Andrea Weiss, Romy Schroeder (DE), Anda Ikauniece, Baiba Zasa (LV), Dalius Krinickas, Agné Kniezaite, Aisté Kubiliute (LT), Karin Pettersson, Laura Piriz (SE), Joachim D'Eugenio, Aurore Maillet, David Connor, Rhona Fairgrieve (European Commission), Alice Belin, Bastiaan Vermonden (Milieu). Background : The Commission presented its report (COM(2014) 97 final) on the first phase of MSFD implementation on 20 February 2014 together with a set of recommendations at EU, regional and national level. The comprehensive documentation 1 which was released with the Commission report included a detailed appraisal of the progress and the shortcomings to date. In addition, the Commission announced that it would organise four regional meetings to discuss the findings of the report with Member States in the region. The following meetings with the EU Member States being contracting parties to the following RSCs have taken place: Black Sea Commission on March with BG and RO being present; Barcelona Convention on 9/10 April with CY, ES, FR, IT, MT, GR and SI being present; HELCOM on May with DE, DK, EE, FI, LT, LV and SE being present; OSPAR on 23/24 May with BE, DE, DK, ES, FR, IE, NL, SE and UK being present. The Secretariats of the Barcelona Convention, HELCOM and OSPAR were invited to participate in part of the respective meetings to discuss possible cooperation and synergies in relation to the follow up actions to the Article 12 report. The meetings followed a similar structure by addressing questions on the various aspects of the Commission assessment/report and resulted in a joint outcome document which is the basis for further actions. The Commission intends to present the results and lessons learnt to the Marine Directors in June 2014 (Heraklion) and discuss, also in the presence of the Executive Secretaries of the RSC, ICES and GFCM, the proposed way forward. The meetings resulted in informal conclusions which were agreed by all participants and also sent to those Member States of the marine region which did not participate with the view to getting their 1 See 1

2 endorsement. These informal conclusions should be the agreed basis for further discussion and follow up through, as appropriate, either the relevant meetings of Regional Sea Conventions or the regional cooperation set up under specific support contracts (in particular for the Mediterranean and Black Sea). When specific support contracts exist, they are designed to support the follow up and the implementation of the operational part of the conclusions. Part of the informal conclusions may have to be worked out in more detail and more formal arrangements put in place, e.g. through the above-mentioned processes. Ultimately, Member States are expected to, preferably, coordinate throughout a marine region, or otherwise unilaterally give a formal response on how the Commission's recommendations in the Article 12 report have been considered and translated into action, together with their report on the implementation of the monitoring programmes (i.e. by 15 October 2014) 2. The Commission expects Member States to make reference to the informal conclusions of these regional meetings and inform the Commission about whether, when and how the listed actions will be addressed. The Commission will then take this response into account when assessing the monitoring programmes. Introduction This was the third of the four follow up meetings organised by the Commission to discuss recommendations in the article 12 assessment reports, focused on the regional level and associated links to the Regional Sea Conventions. It aimed to provide a platform for the Member States which are Parties to HELCOM and the Commission to discuss the analysis, clarify any outstanding issues and address the general and country-specific recommendations contained in the report. It is the first step towards a regionally coordinated and agreed response to the Recommendations made for the short, mid and long term, in order to better implement the MSFD. Discussion The meeting discussed the results of the Commission report (COM(2014) 97) and the related recommendations in relation to the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD 2008/56/EC). The Commission presented the key messages from the Commission report, and highlighted the high number of common recommendations, shared by all or most of EU HELCOM Member States. It was recognised that: A lot had been achieved already by Baltic Sea Member States, within the ambitious deadlines set out by the MSFD. In particular, it was recognised that an unprecedented amount increasing our knowledge of the state of our seas. 2 See letter of Director-General of DG Environment to Permanent Representations of Member States transmitting the Article 12 recommendations. 2

3 The MSFD is implemented through an iterative process functioning at all levels: national, regional and EU. These different levels are complementary and must be joined up in order to effectively implement the MSFD. There were nevertheless, despite these positive aspects, a number of shortcomings as regards the adequacy and coherence of the national approaches for defining Good Environmental Status (GES) (Article 9), setting environmental targets and related indicators (Article 10) and carrying out the initial assessment (Article 8). Also other shortcomings identified by the Commission (e.g. on marine waters geographic data) in the report have been raised. Significant progress has been made since the submission of the various national reports, within HELCOM (e.g. as agreed at the Ministerial meeting in October 2013) as well as at national level (see overview enclosed). Notwithstanding all the progress and agreements already in place, it was necessary to address these identified shortcomings further and develop a joint understanding of what needed to be done in the short- (2014), mid-(2016) and long- (2018 and beyond) term to address these shortcomings. One reason for not using the HELCOM work more extensively was that not all Member States in the Baltic were able to participate in crucial projects (such as Coreset). In future, a full involvement of all contracting parties in all crucial projects is essential. The shortcomings should not affect negatively the implementation of monitoring programmes and the programmes of measures and therefore some adaptations were necessary, e.g. by taking account of the more recent core and pre-core indicators, before these programmes are finalised. it was necessary and urgent to continue the work to have coherent GES definitions, assessment methods and to use, as much as possible, a coordinated or common set of environmental targets (as is already the case for nutrient pollution for the Baltic 3 ). This will allow the establishment of coordinated, effective and cost-efficient implementation of the MSFD, in particular, for the next steps such as the monitoring programmes and programmes of measures. Any development of improved GES determination for 2018 should be incorporated at earlier stages, as early as possible. The MSFD was designed with the need for additional measures in mind, over and above the full implementation of other relevant EU legislation (e.g. the WFD, HBD, CFP, NiD, UWWTD). In doing so, ambitious, quantitative, regionally agreed definitions of GES are the starting point (Article 9), clear baselines of environmental status give the "distance-to-target" (Article 8) and joint up targets and related indicators (Art. 10) will be the most effective way to design cost-effective measures (Art. 13). 3 MAI/CART 3

4 To develop such a marine strategy at regional level was not possible for all descriptors yet, but had been achieved for eutrophication already (HEAT-MAI-CART) and was worth considering for other issues such as marine litter (including microplastics), fisheries, contaminants, seafloor damage and maybe others. For these and other aspects, the full implementation of existing standards and indicators etc. may not allow achieving GES in the HELCOM core indicators and pre-core indicators were a minimum common basis to be used by Baltic EU Member States in assessment and reporting. However, the existing HELCOM indicators may not be enough to comply fully with MSFD. Any gaps would have to be addressed through further joint HELCOM work and/or complemented by coordinated national work, as relevant. Coherence also between the four marine region is important and that the initiative of Sweden and Germany to further align the approaches between OSPAR and HELCOM is an important contribution to this end. Conclusions: 1. On the basis of the discussion, the HELCOM EU Member States committed themselves to: Continue working together to improve adequacy and coherence of the MSFD implementation addressing the recommendations of the Commission in a coordinated way. Further develop together and revise their definition of GES on the basis of relevant EU legislation and the agreed core and, where possible pre-core, indicators, of HELCOM and consequently using them at national level as soon as possible and in 2018 at the latest. HELCOM will provide the latest reference list of relevant indicators / parameters to the Commission by the end of June 2014 (in particular to inform the article 12 assessment ). Prioritise further areas where greater regional convergence can be achieved in relation to environmental targets by 2018 over and above the approach for nutrient pollution (descriptor 5). Such an overview will be prepared by HELCOM and communicated to the Commission by the end of Improve the adequacy, completeness and coherence of the initial assessment in the Baltic Sea by developing the next HELCOM Holistic Assessment (HOLAS2) as an integral part of the initial assessment of all Member States ("roof report") and include a draft HOLAS2 report in the national public consultation and the final HOLAS2 report in the report for the initial assessment to the Commission. HOLAS2 will be based on the agreed core and pre core indicators and the coordinated GES mentioned above. Reflect further on the timing of the HOLAS2 report where a draft report would be agreed by mid-2017, then used for public consultation and finalised and adopted by HELCOM, reflecting the feedback from the public consultations and possibly with some 4

5 updated information that became available in the meantime, in mid-2018, in time for inclusion in the national reports to the Commission in October Develop a regional action plan based on a knowledge gap analysis to overcome the shortcomings identified in the initial assessments of A first action plan will be prepared by the end of 2014 on the basis of already available material (e.g. GEAR Roadmap) and with the view to define coordinated action up until Such an action plan will be reviewed on a regular basis and expanded to have more long-term actions for gaps which cannot be closed completely by Report the agreed coordinated regional monitoring programmes using the regionally agreed fact sheets as part of the national reporting. Such monitoring programmes will include the list of parameters needed for the assessment of HELCOM core and pre-core indicators (HELCOM will provide such a list by the end of June 2014). Ongoing support projects (e.g. MORE, BALSAM) will be requested to assist in the technical preparation of this coordinated monitoring "roof report". Work towards developing or coordinated programmes of measures, including joint elements, taking into account GEAR work and the HELCOM upcoming gap analysis, and develop as a first step coordinated measures on marine litter and noise. This implies support to agreement on a Marine Litter Baltic Action plan in HELCOM (with a draft being available in early 2015 to be considered for public participation) in time for it to form a basis for Baltic EU Member States to take on board as a regional component of their Programme of Measures by Baltic Member States will also consider further opportunities for joint actions, elements of programmes of measures or coordinated programmes of measures, on the basis, i.a. of the results of the HELCOM gap analysis. Consider the public information and consultation timelines in the further planning and ensure that the regional work is developed in such a way that, at all stages of the MSFD implementation, it can be considered in the national public consultations. In addition, a regional public consultation through HELCOM was discussed as a possible option to explore. In particular the updates of GES and targets and the HOLAS2 will have to be considered for public consultation in the period between mid-2017 and mid Furthermore, the Commission committed itself to: Improve the electronic reporting system to make it more user-friendly and reduce administrative burden. In particular, the Commission will work with HELCOM to allow the HOLAS2 report to become the main part of the report of the Baltic Member States to the Commission in The practical details will be worked out between the Commission and the Member States through WG DIKE by the end of 2015 with the aim of agreeing an approach applicable to all marine regions. Provide Member States with specific information about the existing financing opportunities in support of MSFD implementation, where necessary. An overview of funding opportunities 5

6 was presented at the MSCG workshop on 13 May 2014 and will be documented in the future guidance document. Clarify and share with MS the Commission's assessment criteria (tick box) under article 12 and provide Member States and RSCs at earliest convenience with specific information on an outline with the input needed for the evaluation report under Art. 20 MSFD as the basis for planning the outline and further process of the next Art. 8 MSFD assessments 3- The Commission invited the HELCOM EU Member States: To implement these commitments and provide an overview on the progress of this work at the latest with the report for monitoring programmes (i.e. 15 October 2014). Such a progress report should include the information already provided in Annex I, but should address additionally, in particular, how the Member States, individually or together, have addressed the recommendations made by the Commission in the article 12 report. To use HELCOM GEAR to follow up on the above-mentioned actions and prepare for a coordinated response. To send written comments on the Commission's assessment report (including the technical assessments) if they consider it useful 4. To check geographical data and provide and update to the European Commission. All participants agreed to: Present the results of this meeting to the Marine Directors in June, with a view to a shared understanding between COM and MS of the analysis of the MSFD reports and to a coherent follow up of its results throughout the EU. Make this document publicly available, once agreed. 4 The Commission may, however, not amend its assessment reports but rather publish the Member States' comments alongside its report. 6