1. 19th meeting of the WG GES 22/03/2018
Action points and important deadlines

2. Agenda Item 2 – Approval of minutes of the 18th meeting of WG GES
Spain will send their comments on the draft minutes.

3. Agenda Item 5 – Improving determination and assessment of GES a
Agenda Item 5 – Improving determination and assessment of GES a. Report on follow-up work on GES Decision at Union level I – Progress on biodiversity, NIS, eutrophication and contaminants (1/3)
Descriptor
Task
Contributors
Deadline
Contact 1
Further experts nominations
Further feedback to the lists
WG GES;
MS experts
End of March;
End of April;
Contribution to the JRC’s analysis of the methods to set GES thresholds for D1
Express interest for the technical workshop (Ispra, May 2018)
WG GES,
MS experts & RSCs
End of March 2
Further feedback
to the NIS baseline inventories
20th April;
Technical workshop with NIS expert group – (Ispra, 31 May 2018)
Express interest for the technical workshop

4. Agenda Item 5 – Improving determination and assessment of GES a
Agenda Item 5 – Improving determination and assessment of GES a. Report on follow-up work on GES Decision at Union level I – Progress on biodiversity, NIS, eutrophication and contaminants (2/3)
Descriptor
Task
Contributors
Deadline
Contact 5
JRC to request dataset from RSC
RSCs
By mid-April
MS are invited to nominate experts.
Contribution to the JRC’s coordinated work and activities related to the monitoring and assessment of eutrophication.
WG GES and RSCs
20th April;
15th May 8
Further experts nominations
Further contribution to the validation of the contaminants list
WG GES;
MS experts
End of March;
9th April;
Invitation to experts to join the wiki;
Discussions on procedures for grouping of substances and contribution to further work;
Start in April;

5. Agenda Item 5 – Improving determination and assessment of GES a
Agenda Item 5 – Improving determination and assessment of GES a. Report on follow-up work on GES Decision at Union level I – Progress on biodiversity, NIS, eutrophication and contaminants (3/3)
Issue about overall timeline: the Commission will come back on this issue during the next WG GES meeting in October 2018

6. Agenda Item 5 – Improving determination and assessment of GES a
Agenda Item 5 – Improving determination and assessment of GES a. Report on follow-up work on GES Decision at Union level II – Progress on D10
TG Marine Litter 2018 Annual meeting June 2018 in Larnaca, Cyprus (registration is open).
Back-to-back ½ day workshops on Baselines and Thresholds on 28th June 2018.
Preparation of TG ML report on Marine Litter Thresholds (potential further workshop for finalization, end 2018).
Riverine litter: What are next steps, what is needed, who should act? Please provide input, also via delegates to TG ML annual meeting

7. Agenda Item 5 – Improving determination and assessment of GES a
Agenda Item 5 – Improving determination and assessment of GES a. Report on follow-up work on GES Decision at Union level III – Progress on D11
TG Noise will prepare a report with advice of assessment methodologies for discussion at annual meeting on 5-6th June in Bucharest, Romania.
To consolidate further advice to MSCG, TG Noise will organise meeting + workshop on 6-8th November 2018 in Brussels.

8. Agenda Item 5 – Improving determination and assessment of GES a
Agenda Item 5 – Improving determination and assessment of GES a. Report on follow-up work on GES Decision at Union level IV – Work on D1 species integration
Participants are encouraged to register for two workshops organized by ICES on aggregation and extinction risks.
The Workshop on MSFD biodiversity of species D1 aggregation (WKDIV_AGG), chaired by Anna Rindorf, Denmark, will be established and meet in ICES HQ, Copenhagen, Denmark, on 1–4 May 2018
The Workshop on extinction risk of MSFD biodiversity approach (WKDIV_EXTINCT), chaired by Dave Reid, Ireland, will be established and will meet in ICES HQ, Copenhagen, Denmark, on 12–15 June 2018

9. Agenda Item 5 – Improving determination and assessment of GES a
Agenda Item 5 – Improving determination and assessment of GES a. Report on follow-up work on GES Decision at Union level V – Future ICES requests: outline of work on seafloor integrity and D3
MS to comment on paper (GES_ ) on GES for Descriptor 1 (seabed habitats) and Descriptor 6 (sea-floor integrity) by 04th April, so that updated paper will be presented at MSCG meeting.
Member States to comment on paper (GES_ ) and validate the lists of commercially exploited fish and shellfish species by 18th May 2018 (adding additional species before the list is made available in the web reporting system).

10. Agenda Item 5 – Improving determination and assessment of GES b
Agenda Item 5 – Improving determination and assessment of GES b. Report on follow-up work on GES Decision at regional/subregional level
Actions on MRUs:
WHAT
WHEN
Ask the EEA for help delimiting subdivisions
30 March 2018
Updates of Marine waters shapefiles
30 April 2018
Updates of the 4geo.xml &
Lists of MRUs (names)
30 May 2018
Updates of the MRU shapefiles
30 June 2018

11. Agenda Item 5 – Improving determination and assessment of GES d
Agenda Item 5 – Improving determination and assessment of GES d. Technical guidance for assessments under Article 8
DG GES to prepare a proposal for WG GES 20 on organising the follow-up work on COM Dec based on the clarification with JRC, ICES, MS represented in DG GES and EU Commission on
ongoing EU-level work
identified technical and overarching issues so far not addressed
issues that may arise from the latest assessment experiences
Deadline for replying to questionnaire: 20 April

12. Agenda Item 5 – Improving determination and assessment of GES e
Agenda Item 5 – Improving determination and assessment of GES e reporting on updates of Article 8, 9, 10: focused outputs
MS to send comments on document GES_ by 04th April.
Update of the guidance document to be presented at the MSCG on 23th April.

13. Agenda Item 6 – Information exchange a. MSFD 2018 call
Stages
Date and time or indicative period
Publication of the call
20th March 2018
Deadline for submitting applications
20th June 2018 – 17h00
Evaluation period
July – September 2018
Information to applicants
15 December the latest
Signature of grant agreement
October – December 2018