1. EEA marine assessments 2016-2022 Informing EU policy implementation
God morning
17th November 2016 – EIONET Marine
Presentation by EEA Water & Marine Group

2. Up-coming marine assessments - learning from experience
1st round of MSFD initial assessments showed:
‘Diverging’ data availability, variation of parameters used as well as different levels of available knowledge
Lack of coherence and comparability in indicators used
Lack of coherence and comparability in the final evaluation of overall status
Lack of support to the spatial dimension of an ecosystem-based approach to management, e.g. no harmonised spatial data reported preventing the linkage to spatial measures (and MSP Directive)
1st round of MSFD reporting:
High amount of ‘unknown’, ‘not reported’ and/or ‘not assessed’
No guarantee that countries will report information of the required quality on time (only 8 the first time)
Timing of 2018 MSFD reporting and 2019 Habitats Directive Art. 17 does not match the EEA SOER2020
The ‘late’ realisation of such challenges in 2013 meant we struggled (time wise) when producing the EEA marine contribution to both the HOPE Conference as well as SOER2015 – we are learning from this and planning ahead

3. Timing of selected EU reporting obligations
Article
Deadline
Water Framework Directive
Art. 3, 4, 5 & 6,
23 March 2016
Marine Strategy Framework Directive
Art. 13, 14, 17 & 19 (measures)
31 March 2016
Art. 8, 9 & 10
15 October 2018
Habitats Directive
Art. 17
1st quarter 2019
Art. 20 (progress report)
June or December 2019
SOER 2020
EEA Regulation
3-4th quarter 2019
7th Environmental Action Programme
N/A
2020
EU Biodiversity Strategy

4. EEA marine assessments – supporting EU policy implementation

5. Re-capping on the conceptual framework for EEA marine assessments
Spatial approach
Multiple objectives
Central for EEA marine assessments are our conceptual framework. It is built around a holistic understanding of an ecosystem-based approach to management that on one part realise it is a
Spatial approach, 2) its about recognising connections, 3) addressing cumulative impacts and 4) about handling multiple objectives.
Its main building blocks include marine ecosystems, socio-economic system as well as drivers of changes – the individual componets of the circles can be linked directly to EU policy documents and/or key scientific references.
Obviously, MPAs as a measure for halting loss of biodiversity fits nicely within this conceptual framework. It is fully described in the State of Europes seas report.
Cumulative impacts
Recognising connections
State of Europe’s seas Link

6. EEA marine assessment products – 2018 Pressures & Impacts
Policy question:
Are we managing pressures in Europe’s seas appropriately?
Objectives:
To provide an overview of individual pressures
To describe potential cumulative effects of pressures and their impacts in Europe’s seas (spatial analysis)
Scope:
Describe temporal trends through selected indicators
Coverage of pressure layers includes the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Greater North Sea. We are searching for available spatial information on the North- east Atlantic Ocean
EIONET support?
Provide access to, e.g., spatial layers of human activities
EUSEAMAP 2016

7. EEA marine assessment products – 2019 Biodiversity
Policy question:
Has Europe halted the loss of marine biodiversity?
Objective:
To provide an assessment of biodiversity in Europe’s seas
Scope:
Describe temporal trends through selected indicators from, e.g., Regional Sea Conventions, EEA, Living Ocean Index, etc.
Assess ‘biodiversity status’ based on the application of the DEVOTES tool, in combination with relevant, available data from MSFD and Regional Sea Conventions
EIONET support?
Provide relevant information on biodiversity (beyond that to be reported under the MSFD and nature directives)?
Comments on draft are appreciated and encouraged
Proportion of habitat assessments in each conservation status class per marine region (2007–2012); assessed habitats are listed under Annex II of the Habitats Directive
European marine biodiversity indicators: 4 species of seagrasses, 42 monitoring programmes, 49 indicators, 51 metrics .
More than 500 indicators for European marine biodiversity has been identified – HOPE Conference 2014

8. Key EEA marine assessment products – 2019 MSFD Art. 20 contribution
Objective:
To provide a relevant EEA contribution to the Art. 20 Commission report for the European Parliament and Council on the implementation of the MSFD
Scope:
Art b ‘A review of the status of the marine environment in the Community, undertaken in coordination with the European Environment Agency and the relevant regional marine and fisheries organisations and conventions’;
European Commission (DG ENV services) in the lead
GES assessment – MSFD Art 20

9. Key EEA marine assessment products – 2019 Marine Messages II
Objectives:
To provide a short, integrated assessment of progress in how Europe is achieving the sustainable use of it’s seas
To ensure a timely, high quality, marine contribution to SOER2020
Scope:
EU-level picture of the health of and outlook for the marine environment across the 4 European regioal seas
Status quo on development of marine knowledge (e.g. Marine Knowledge 2020, WISE-Marine, Copernicus, tools)
Overview of marine and maritime policy responses for the sustainable use of Europe’s seas (e.g. 7th EAP, Biodiversity Strategy, MSFD, IMP etc.)
Explore an answer to whether we are living well within limits of the ocean (linking to SDGs)
HOPE conference, viewings, hard copies, presented twice for the Council, 44 articles

10. Marine natural capital and ecosystem services – 2017 to 2022 (1/3)
In the short-term => 2017
To publish the ‘background material’ that has supported our work on the assessment of marine natural capital and ecosystem services so far because:
Only some of its outcomes have been included in relevant EEA publications
This material justifies such outcomes and also shows what we’ve learnt while developing it
=> It can help others!
We are planning to:
Release the very technically detailed ‘background material’ as ETC/ICM Reports (in ETC/ICM web site) => For practitioners
Publish a ‘high level summary’ of that as an EEA Report => For those who may need to know even if they don’t practice…
EIONET support? Participate in the EIONET consultation of the draft EEA 2017 Report on ‘Developing marine ecosystem (services) assessments’ (working title) by 2nd quarter 2017

11. Link human activity-pressure- impact based on expert judgment *
Marine natural capital and ecosystem services – 2017 to (2/3)
In the long-term => Starting in 2018 until at least 2022, we aim to develop:
A bio-physically mapped assessment of cumulative pressures leading to impacts on broad scale seabed habitats (using EUSeaMap) inter alia to account for the lack of (biodiversity) state information
Approach based on HELCOM HOLAS (HOLAS II ongoing) and HARMONY projects => Member State initiatives to actually implement the MSFD or support its implementation
Link human activity-pressure- impact based on expert judgment *
(*) EU RTD projects such as ODEMM and Aquacross have developed methods to establish these links
Nutrients (and other human uses & land-based pollution (pressures) => 33 datasets)
Aphotic mud (and other ecological features => 28 datasets)

12. Marine natural capital and ecosystem services – 2017 to 2022 (3/3)
Spatial approach to be combined with biodiversity status information (wherever available and feasible) – as per Andersen et al. (2015) & DEVOTES project
Member States’ (e.g. MSFD) pressure and biodiversity datasets are needed => Case studies first as datasets are not readily available to us (only assessment products)
To produce a bio-physically mapped assessment of:
Ecosystem condition, which is then combined with ecosystem and ecosystem services linkages leading to (a bio-physically mapped assessment of)
Marine ecosystem service capacity => Relevant to both EU-level marine ecosystem assessment and accounting
EIONET support? The same as with 2018 Pressure and 2019 Biodiversity assessments, e.g. data/spatial layer provision to test approaches
E.g. assessment of seabed condition and extent (from bottom trawling impacts linking to CFP VMS data products and GES targets for MSFD D6) leading to assessing the capacity to supply several marine ecosystem services
Benthis project

13. Putting it all together! – 2022 State of Europe’s seas II
Objectives:
To provide an updated assessment of the ‘State of Europe’s seas’
Scope:
Update and compare with the 2015 ‘baseline’ using the analysis of the information from EIONET, the 2018 MSFD reporting and the Habitats Directive Art. 17 reporting
Additional information: Developed through the methodological approaches used in EEA marine assessments over , and from the Regional Sea Convention ‘roof’ reports
Technical advice for 3rd round of MSFD reporting (possibility) using the methodologies and knowledge gained in preparing this report
The findings of the updated Report should be expressed in a way that support the follow up to SOER 2020, 7th EAP, Biodiversity Strategy etc.; althoug its scope may change as these policies evolve and data availability and quality become clearer...

14. Up-coming EEA marine assessments 2016-2022
Identifying pragmatic solutions – we now have:
A conceptual framework that recognises several policies and assessment ‘needs’
A strategic plan on how we intent to deliver our multiple obligations
Learnt from experience and recognised the challenges ahead on, e.g., timing of key EU-policy reporting streams, data quality and availability, differences within and between regions in overcoming common challenges, etc.
Avoided dependency on a single reporting processes, but aimed at using different (alternative or complementary) sources of information
Built on peer reviewed innovative methodologies developed through EU funded initiatives, Regional Sea Conventions and by individual Member States
A series of assessments that can act as a driver towards increased coordination and harmonisation of information within and across regions, while recognising the diversity of approaches applied across Member States and Regional Sea Conventions

15. Guiding questions for break-out group discussion
Beyond the EEA mandate/Regulation, what is your motivation for engaging in EEA´s future marine work?
What do you think has worked well in the past in terms of EEA/Eionet NRC collaboration, and what could change in the future?
How is the collaboration with EEA and ETC-ICM envisioned by the NRC?
What do you think is the added-value of the NRC marine collaboration for EEA´s future marine work?

16. Thank you Johnny.reker@eea.europa.eu Eva.Gelabert@eea.europa.eu
God morning