1. Progress report January-April 2009
JRC/ICES task groups on ‚criteria and methodological standards for the GES descriptors‘
Progress report January-April 2009

2. Background
Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) Member States shall take the necessary measures to achieve or maintain ‘Good Environmental Status’ in the marine environment by the year 2020 at the latest

3. Background
Article 9(3) of the Directive
"Criteria and methodological standards to be used by the Member States, which are designed to amend non-essential elements of this Directive by supplementing it, shall be laid down, on the basis of Annexes I and III, in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 25(3) by 15 July 2010 in such a way as to ensure consistency and to allow for comparison between Marine Regions or Sub-Regions of the extent to which good environmental status is being achieved. Before proposing such criteria and standards the Commission shall consult all interested parties, including Regional Sea Conventions."

4. Background
The European Commission has commissioned the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) to facilitate the preparation of the scientific basis for the development of criteria and methodological standards in relation to 8 of the 11 Good Environmental Status (GES) descriptors in the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) during the course of With this purpose, the JRC and ICES were requested to establish Task Groups (TGs) for each of these 8 descriptors.

5. Aim of task groups
The aim of the work of the TGs is to put forward a comparable and consistent interpretation of the concept of GES.
The task is to get from very general definitions of the descriptors (Article 3 and Annex I of the Directive) to a common understanding of what GES is, and how status of ecosystems relative to it should be quantified.
The task is not to prescribe boundaries between good and bad.

6. QUALITATIVE DESCRIPTORS FOR DETERMINING GES
MSFD ANNEX I: Qualitative descriptors for determining GES (referred to in Articles 3(5), 9(1), 9(3) and 24)
Direct link to other descriptors
„Clean Sea Cluster“
(9) Contaminants in fish and other seafood for human consumption do not exceed levels established by Community legislation or other relevant standards.
(10) Properties and quantities of marine litter do not cause harm to the coastal and marine environment.

7. JRC/ ICES TGs in relation to the EU level Organisation

8. Set up of Task Groups
Each TG consists of 12 persons- one chair and up to 11 members, appointed in personal capacity, not representing a Member State (MS) or organisation.
TG members were selected based on 4 criteria:
Demonstrated expertise applicable to the task
Demonstrated experience in providing practical scientific advice
Ensuring the range of expertise necessary for the task
Ensuring the range of regional knowledge necessary for the task.
To assist the establishment the TGs, DGENV has sent out a request to MS and marine conventions in January 2009 to suggest potential TG members.

9. Distribution of TG members specific regional expertises
Task Groups composition
JRC and ICES received 303 suggestions, for only 96 places in the groups.
Distribution of TG members specific regional expertises
1 - biodiversity, 2 - Non-indigenous species, 3 - Fish and Shellfish, 4 - Food webs, 5 - Eutrophication, 6 - Sea floor integrity, 8 - Contaminants, 11 - Energy and Noise

10. Task Groups composition
% of TG experts with specific regional expertise suggested by MS and the Regional Sea Conventions and in the TG membership
Overall, the distribution of regional expertise in the TGs is very similar to the distribution in the suggestions by MS and marine conventions

11. Task Groups composition
Not a JRC/ICES TG

12. Terms of Reference (ToR)
JRC and ICES have prepared a guidance document (ToR) addressing the background of the work, definition of key terms and concepts, organisational issues, the terms of reference for the TGs, and the timetable.
This document was agreed by the Management Group (MG) following their meeting in February 2009.

13. ToR Contents CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION
2 DEFINITIONS OF KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS
3 ORGANISATION
3.1 EU level process
3.2 Organisation of the work of the task groups
4 TERMS OF REFERENCE OF THE TASK GROUPS
5 REPORTING OUTLINE
6 TIMETABLE
ANNEX 1 - QUALITATIVE DESCRIPTORS FOR DETERMINING GOOD ENVIRONMENTAL STATUS (MSFD ANNEX 1)
ANNEX 2 - PROTOCOL FOR OBSERVERS

14. Organisation of the work of the TGs
The JRC and the ICES will facilitate the work of the TGs. A steering group (SG) has been established consisting of 2 persons from ICES (Paul Keizer and Claus Hagebro) and 2 persons from JRC (Ana Cristina Cardoso and Wouter van de Bund). The SG is responsible for the day-to-day management of the project.
A Management group (MG) was established consisting of the chairs of the TGs plus the SG members joined, when relevant, by those in the JRC responsible for the technical/scientific work for descriptors 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8. The MG is co-chaired by Paul Keizer (ICES) and Ana Cristina Cardoso (JRC). Its task is to coordinate the work among TGs and to ensure that the developments correspond between them.

15. The work and meetings of the TGs
Most of the work of the TGs will be by correspondence, the exact nature of this will be decided within each TG. Each group will have a maximum 2 physical meetings during 2009, to ensure work is planned and coordinated efficiently and to prepare the draft reports.
JRC will prepare a compilation of available information about the environmental objectives and monitoring requirements of relevant EU legislation and policies by June 2009, as background information for all TGs. Information on equivalent requirements under the regional seas conventions will also be assembled. JRC will provide specific scientific support to the work of the task groups for descriptors 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 8.
The SG members will closely follow the progress in the TGs and point out inconsistencies and/or synergies to the TG leaders. TGs addressing closely related issues are encouraged to be represented in each other’s meetings. Larger issues will be discussed by the MG.
Representatives of the Regional Seas Conventions (HELCOM, OSPAR, Barcelona, and Bucharest) are invited to appoint 1 observer to each TG to follow their work. Specific rules for the participation of Observers are given in Annex 2 of the ToR (Protocol for Observers).

16. Status of nomination of observers
At present not all Conventions nominated observers for all TGs and one TG4 (Food Webs) have currently no observer appointed for. Black Sea have not yet nominated observers.
Observers are allowed to attend the meetings of the TG to which they are assigned (the first TG’s meetings will be held from end of May to mid-June).
Ingo Narberhaud (3)
Monica Stankiewicz (3)
Maria Laamanen (3)
Jukka Mehtonen (3)

17. Sharing of information within and between TGs
A web-based information exchange and management facility was set up to exchange information -‘SharePoint site’.
Each of the TGs have its own working space.
Access to the material on the website is limited to members of the TGs, the MG, observers, and DGENV/JRC/ICES staff involved.
Own TG documents
Other TG documents
MG documents
SG documents
TG members rw r -
TG Observers
DGENV/JRC staff involved
MG members
SG members
rw-read and write; r-read only
Observers have “read-only” access to all working documents that TG members have access to.

18. Issues to be addressed by the TGs
1) Initial interpretation of the descriptor
Each TG will start by scoping an initial interpretation of the descriptor as it is formulated in Annex I of the MSFD, addressing the following points:
- definition/interpretation of the key terms used in the descriptor
- describe what is covered by this descriptor and what falls outside its scope
- identification of possible links and overlaps with other descriptors
- identification of relevant policies and conventions related to the descriptor
2) Review of scientific literature and existing methods
Each TG will review existing scientific literature relevant for the descriptor in question, as well as existing relevant methods for quantifying GES, taking into account existing practices linked to relevant EU legislation and regional seas conventions.
The review should address the following questions:
- is there a common scientific understanding of the key concepts of the descriptor (e.g. ‘biodiversity’, ‘alien species’, ‘litter’, ‘healthy stock’, ‘pollution effect’, ‘adverse effect on marine ecosystems’)?
- if yes: describe the common understanding
- if no: discuss alternative interpretations and open issues
- is there a common scientific understanding how to monitor the descriptor?
- if yes: describe the common understanding; is it useful/practical
- what are the existing approaches that can be used for assessing GES with regard to the descriptor? To which extent do they cover the requirements of the descriptor? Which aspects of the descriptor are not or poorly covered?
3) Identify relevant temporal/spatial scales for the descriptor
The TG should identify the relevant spatial and temporal scales for the descriptor. Each TG will need to address this issue in a manner that is consistent with their particular descriptor, taking into account the spatial and temporal scales of the relevant physical, biological and ecological systems and also the policy scales in each region.
If different approaches are required in different regions the task group should describe what they are, where they should be applied and the rationale for the differences.

19. Issues to be addressed by the TGs
4) General framework for describing environmental status
The TGS should describe the conceptual framework that should be used for the descriptor:
a. identify relevant state and pressure indicators
b. describe how the indicators respond to a degradation gradient
c. identify how to monitor the state and pressure indicators (what to measure, taking into account spatial and temporal scales)
5) Monitoring
- what are the data needs for monitoring compliance to GES under the descriptor
- to which extent are the data needs covered by national monitoring programmes? Which aspects of the descriptor are not or poorly covered?
- are there existing methodological standards that cover these data needs?
- recommendations how to make optimal use of existing monitoring information
- identify where it is possible to make improvements by targeted and focused additional monitoring
The TG should list existing Quality Assurance guidelines for the descriptor e.g. regional conventions, CEN, ISO and national guidelines which could be relevant, and assess where further guidelines need to be developed, identifying the appropriate scale (EU, regional, national).
6) Research needs
The TG should assess the level of maturity of our understanding of the descriptor. This is expected to widely vary among descriptors, but also among marine regions. This should be discussed and where relevant, research priorities identified and recommended.

20. Reporting outline
The reports should be very short, explicitly addressing the issues identified in the ToR. The substance of the work will be in annexes; these can be much more detailed.
Interim reports will be required prior to the meetings of the WG on GES. These brief reports should indicate the status of the TG work. They will be compiled by the SG based on information provided by the TG leaders

21. Current status of the Work
TG 1 – Biodiversity – The group is complete and date and venue for first meeting is set.
TG 2 – Non-indigenous species – The group is complete and date and venue for first meeting is set.
TG 3 – Fish and Shellfish – The group is complete and date and venue for first meeting is set.
TG 4 – Food webs – There has been considerable difficulty in recruiting members for this group. However, the group is now complete and date and venue for first meeting is set.
TG 5 – Eutrophication – The TG has a full membership and the date and venue for the first meeting has been set. There is an additional specific task here to determine the applicability of the WFD approach to eutrophication to coastal waters, that will be carried out by JRC.
TG 6 – Sea floor integrity – The TG has a full membership and held a WebEx meeting on April 15. They have agreed upon a work plan to deliver their tasks. Their first meeting and venue has been set.
TG 8 – Contaminants – This group has already had its first meeting will full attendance, and has agreed upon a work plan to deliver their tasks. There were observers from the 4 RSCs. The TG has flagged the need and willingness to establish strong links with task groups dealing with Descriptor 9 and 10 (once these groups will be established)
TG 11 – Energy and Noise – This group has a full membership and there is a date and preliminary venue for the first meeting.

22. Timetable Meetings planned for the MG:
- an initial meeting was held in mid-February 2009, that broadly agreed on the composition, terms of reference, and division of labour for the task groups
- a second meeting will occur in mid September 2009 that will discuss the progress in the task groups
- a third meeting will be held early February 2010 to compile the draft report based on the reports from the different Task Groups.
DGENV will be invited to participate in the management group meetings.
Management Group meeting: 24 June 2009 (Web meeting)
Steering Group meeting: September, date to be decided (close to the Management Group meeting of September)
Meetings of the different TGs

23. Expectations from this GES WG meeting
The GES working group is invited to:
take note of the state of play of the current TGs activities and the expected developments.

24. Thank you for your attention