1. Monitoring and assessment “needs” of the European Marine Strategy
Introduction
The European Union is highly dependent on maritime transport. Around 90% of its external trade and 40% of its internal trade goes by sea. For most inter continental trade, shipping is of course the only feasible option. World trade is growing and as a result so is EU shipping. Trade has consistently grown at a faster rate than the world economy for the last six decades. In view of the scale of current and predicted activity, it is inevitable that concerns arise about its impact on the environment.
The development of short sea shipping is seen as a central element of the strategy for a European transport system set out in the Commission’s 2001 transport White Paper which seeks to encourage use of more environmentally benign modes of transport. The view is often stated that in order to reduce pollution and ease congestion on the roads, shipping should be encouraged. This may well be true, with a number of caveats. Firstly that using the sea should not lead to further growth in demand to distribute the goods by road, secondly that shipping actually should result in lower pollutant emissions. On the positive side it should be noted that where shipping substitutes for road transport, its low energy use per tonne-km helps to reduce fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions.
As with all modes of transport the external effects from shipping vary. The Commission has a long standing policy of seeking to ensure that all modes of transport pay their external costs, and there is of course every reason why this should also be implemented in the maritime sector.
So we can see that shipping does offer potential for satisfying a proportion of transport demand in a way that offers some environmental benefits. However, in doing so, there are environmental concerns that need to be addressed. In addition if capacity is to be expanded it will give rise to additional environmental pressures.
Gert Verreet – DG Environment, Unit D.2 marine team
EEA-led EMMA workshop 2, 20 November 2006

2. « Knowledge-based Approach »
I plan to talk about some of the aspects of Community policy relevant to shipping, for example a review of current known environmental pressures, ongoing policy developments (such as the marine strategy and air pollutant emissions) before ending up with some remarks with reference to this Session’s theme.

3. « Ecosystem Approach »
How do we, at the European Commission, look upon the marine environmental protection challenge as a whole?
The Commission adopted in October 2005 a Thematic Strategy for the Protection and Conservation of the Marine Environment, which will form the environmental pillar of the broader, future EU Maritime Policy under preparation. For the first time, the European Union is putting in place a policy framework – including legislation – which specifically addresses the vital issue of protecting Europe’s seas and oceans.
The communication of the Commission sets out the rationale.
The package also includes a proposed Directive, the hard core of the strategy. As is now common for all main policy proposals, an extended impact assessment was also published as part of the package.
On the Commission’s environment website you will find the full documentation and more.

4. « Ecosystem Approach »
The marine environment is still deteriorating, and fast. To reverse the current degradation, the sum of all existing measures and efforts is clearly insufficient, whether at international, EU or national level. Despite a lot of shipping measures and more, many measures developed at EU level with some positive effects on the marine environment were not designed to protect the marine environment as such. Protecting the marine environment must no longer be a mere side-effect of other policies. An integrated strategy is required at EU level, taking into account all pressures and impacts on the marine environment.
This is precisely what the EU Marine Strategy will provide. The objective of the Strategy is to achieve “good environmental status” of the EU’s marine environment by No specific management measure will be taken at EU level. The Commission proposal identifies marine regions for which ‘marine strategies’ including detailed programmes of measures will need to be drawn up by Member States in close cooperation with one another and also with any third country sharing the same region.

5. A challenge of the ecosystem approach
System thinking !
cross-linking of signals (chemical, physical, biological)
Improved understanding
The proposal provides a framework within which a sustainable development of marine areas can take place. The marine strategy directive itself will not contain the management measures required to improve environmental quality of the seas: it provides the mechanisms by which such measures can be prepared on a sound regional basis and within European dimensions.
It is therefore quite appropriate to underline that existing regional seas conventions will be essential platforms and actors for ensuring regional cooperation and coordination. Equally essential will be interaction with stakeholders at the various governance levels.

6. From Annex II Table I Habitat types
- The predominant seabed and water column habitat type(s) with a description of the characteristic physical and chemical features;
- Identification and mapping of special habitat types especially those recognised or identified under EU legislation (habitats and birds directives) or international conventions as being of special scientific or biodiversity interest;
- Habitats in areas which by virtue of their characteristics, location, or strategic importance merit a particular reference. This may include areas subject to intense or specific pressures or areas which merit a specific protection regime.

7. From Annex II Table I Biological features
- A description of the biological communities associated with the predominant seabed and water column habitats. This would include information of the phytoplankton and zooplankton communities including the species and seasonal and geographical variability;
- Information on angiosperms, macroalgae and invertebrate bottom fauna, including species composition, biomass, and annual/seasonal variability;
Information on the structure of fish populations, including the abundance, distribution and age/size structure of the populations;
(…)

8. From Annex II Table I Biological features
- A description of the population dynamics, natural and actual range and status of species of marine mammals and reptiles occurring in the region/sub-region;
- A description of the population dynamics, natural and actual range and status of species of seabirds occurring in the region/sub-region;
- A description of the population dynamics, natural and actual range and status of other species occurring in the region/sub-region which are the subject of EU legislation or international agreements;
- An inventory of the temporal occurrence, abundance and spatial distribution of non-indigenous, exotic species or, where relevant, genetically distinct forms of native species, which are present in the region/sub-region.

9. From Annex II Table II Biological disturbance
- Introduction of microbial pathogens;
- Introduction of non-indigenous species and translocations;
- Selective extraction of species (e.g. by commercial and recreational fishing).

10. First elements of EMMA roadmap
Roadmap objective
Purpose
A.1 Inventory per region and country of existing monitoring of elements in marine strategy directive.
A.2 Pan-European level inventory of indicators, (…), based on inventories per region.
To improve at national level understanding of starting situation, to see the extent to which data and information are already available in existing context of marine environmental monitoring and assessment work and which gaps exist on country basis.
To see across countries and regions how the situation is in level of existing data and information and to determine more precisely where improvements can be expected through action at international (regional, Europe, …) level.
To learn the degree of commonality in indicators across regions and see how things are done elsewhere, determining scope for harmonisation or understanding reasons for regional differences.
A.3.1 Determining the contribution of operational oceanography to environmental indicators
Given strong commitments to operational environmental data and information services, to capitalise in on these developments at operational level so that newly developing data and information streams feed in rapidly, and are tuned, to end-users such as the environmental monitoring and assessment community.
A.4.1 Convergence of assessment methods and presentation of status of biodiversity
General need across regions and many developments where there is scope to avoid incoherence across institutional boundaries. High general interest for better tools to capture the complexity.