1Approval of the Agenda and of the Minutes of the 18Th MSCG Meeting

MSCG_19-2016

Marine Strategy Framework Directive
Common Implementation Strategy
19th Meeting of the Marine Strategy Coordination Group (MSCG)
Document: / Draft Minutes: 19th meeting of the Marine Strategy Coordination Group (MSCG), Brussels, 10-11 November 2016
Title / Draft Minutes of the 19th MSCG meeting
Date prepared: / 25112016 V1
Prepared by: / DG Environment and Milieu

Brussels, 10-11 November 2016

Minutes

Meeting of the Marine Strategy Coordination Group (MSCG)

10-11 November 2016, Brussels

1Approval of the agenda and of the minutes of the 18th MSCG meeting

The meeting was chaired by Matjaž MALGAJ, the Head of the Marine Environment and Water Industry Unit, DG Environment. A list of participants is foundin Section 7 of this report. The documents and presentations for the meeting are listed in Annex 1, and are available on CIRCABC.

The participants approved the Draft Agenda of the meeting as well as the minutes of the 18th MSCG meeting.

2Nature of the meeting

The meeting was non-public. The meeting was open to Member States, Commission Services and to MSFD CIS process-registered stakeholders. All participants attended the meeting in person.

3List of points discussed

3.1Information on next Marine Directors' meeting

The Chair informed the MSCG that, after consultation with the current Presidency, and given a busy agenda already in place, it has been agreed that the next Directors meeting in November 2016 will not include a marine part. The next Marine Directors meeting will thus take place in June2017.

Malta introduced the practical arrangements and the programme of the Directors’ meeting on 15-16 June 2017, which will take place in the context of the upcoming Maltese presidency

3.2Implementation of the Directive

3.2.1A. Transposition; reporting on articles 11 and 13 and 14 (state of) and update on pilots and infringements

The Commission presented the state of play regarding infringements and reporting. The replies to pilots on infringement for non-reporting of programmes of measures (PoMs, Article 13)are currently being assessed. Several Member States informed the MSCG that their PoMs are either in the process of being finalised or recently finalised, and that the Commission should expect new Article 13 reports over the coming months. These countries included Croatia, Cyprus, Italy, Poland, Romania and Slovenia.

The presentation is available on CIRCABC.

3.2.2B. Update on Commission Article 12 assessment of Article 11 (monitoring) and Article 16 assessment of Article 13 and 14 (programmes of measures, exceptions)

The Commissionreminded the participants that the draft methodology for the assessment of the Programmes of Measures and for exceptions was presented during the previous meeting. The work on the methodology is, however, still ongoing, and is currently being tested and refined. Finally, the Article 12 assessment report on the monitoring programmes is currently being translated and will soon be up for adoption.

Seas at Risk and Oceanapresented an analysis they had carried out on the PoMs of some Member States, on the basis of PoMs made public by Member States during their public consultation. The analysis showed that most of the measures proposed derived from existing national and EU legislation and highlighted a lack of financial commitment for the proposed measures, concluding that there wasalow level of ambition in the PoMs analysed. A room document of this analysis was distributed.

3.2.3C. Information from Member State activities: CFP Article 11 notifications and MSFD

Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and the UK presented activities in their countries where fisheries measures, including those stemming from CFP Article 11 notifications, are being used in the MSFD context.

All presentations can be consulted on CIRCABC.

The following points were raised and clarified during the discussion:

• Belgium clarified that it has carried out appropriate assessments as part of its Marine Spatial Planning process for the designation of the areas subject to CFP Article 11 measures, and that they cover Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) under the Habitats Directive. Belgium also noted that consultation with other Member States takes a long time.
• The UK’s presentation focused on fisheries management measures for offshore English marine protected areas (MPAs). The Commission commented that the Article 11 CFP process needs to open.
• In response to Sweden’s presentation, WWF remarked that it has developed a system to track fishing vessels through the Automatic Identification System (AIS) and that the tool is available for use by other institutions.
• Seas at Risk welcomed the different processes being implemented by Member States and asked the Commission to highlight these approaches in the future.
• The EEA asked how these measures can help to achieve good environmental status (GES). The Chair stated that it is keen to look at the effectiveness of MPA management measures in the future and a related event will be launched at the next meeting of the group on transatlanticcooperation.
• Birdlife welcomed the information provided from the northern Member States, but called for more information to be communicated from southern Member States.
• D. Information from Regional Sea Conventions

OSPAR informed the MSCG about its work on the intermediate regional assessment of the state of the north-east Atlantic, which is expected by Summer 2017. While work is progressing, OSPAR highlighted that there are some difficulties that need to be overcome, e.g. the use of fisheries indicators for assessing non-commercial fish species. It added that there are several other projects, such as the EU-funded EcApRHA project on benthic habitats and food webs the results of which will be available by the end of the year, which are contributing to the intermediate assessment.

Finland informed the MSCG on HELCOM activities. HELCOM is currently working on the second holistic assessment of the Baltic Sea (HOLAS II), using a set of core indicators with boundaries for GES. The draft assessment report is likely to be ready by mid-2017, after which public consultationswill be organised. The assessment will then be finalised in 2018, taking on board any new data. All work is being linked up with the MSFD processes.

The Chair recalled that the EU has taken over the HELCOM Chairmanship for a two-year period starting summer 2016, with three main priorities – healthy ecosystems, innovation for a sustainable blue economy and regional governance.

Romania informed the MSCG on the Black Sea Commission activities. In October, the Black Sea Integrated monitoring and pollution assessment has been approved. The structure of the monitoring programme complies with the MSFD requirements. Marine litter is one of the focus areas of the Black Sea Commission. A Marine Litter Action Plan has been drafted.

3.3Points for adoption – CIS Work Programme

The Chair announced that the MSFD Regulatory Committee approved the revised Commission Decision on GES criteria at its meeting on 10 November 2016, which unlocks the CIS Work Programme (WP) for 2016-2019. The Marine Directors endorsed the WP headlines in June 2016 but requested additional time for comments. This process was now complete, and the Commission had integrated the comments received into the current version of the WP. Comments based on the assumption that the Commission Decision would not be approved had been left out.

Several points were raised by the Member States, including:

• The need to reconsider the WP document in view of the adoption of the revised Commission Decision.
• The need for more flexible timelines of the proposed work.
• The inclusion of a review of TG Noise monitoring guidance as a task in the WP.
• The need to be critical as to what the WG GES and WG POMESA can deliver in view of their heavy workload.
• The need for more adjustments regarding TG Noise work, and that there is a lot of work that still needs to be done before developing and agreeing GES criteria threshold values.
• It was proposed for the WGs to look at the programme and provide feedback on the tasks outlined.
• The need for a more realistic timeline for finalising the Article 8 Guidance, and the possibility to integrate political messages in the Guidance beyond technical integration approaches.
• The need to clarify the process of assessing if GES is reached by 2020.
• The importance of undertaking more work on sharing data (in the context of WG DIKE and TG Data).
• The importance of regional obligations (i.e. linked to RSCs), which should be well reflected in the CIS WP.

• The need to include the risk-based approach in the WG GES task.

The Commission agreed that a revised version of the WP, taking into account the comments above, will be releasedwith the minutes of the meeting; the new version will be adopted through a written procedure.

The Chair clarified that the way to assess whether GES is reached in 2020 will be a discussion point for the Marine Directors at their meeting in June2017.

The Commission stated that the TG Data work will provide ideas on priorities to make sure TG Data and WG DIKE related work is linked. In this sense, the involvement of RSCs was considered to be welcomed.

The Chair noted that co-chairs are needed for WG DIKE, WG POMESA and TG Noise and that the deadline for proposals is 15 December 2016. Italy proposed to co-chair WG GES and to be part of the Drafting Group GES. France expressed interest to co-chair TG Data, but stressed the need for the group to focus on common data formats between the Member States and the Commission. Finland offered to co-chair WG POMESA.

The CIS WP document is available on CIRCABC. A revised version was uploaded following the meeting.

3.4Points for discussion

3.4.1A. Progress on technical guidance for Art. 8 assessments

The Commission informed the MSCG that discussion with the WG GES regarding the Article 8 Guidance enabled the identification of specific issues needing further work and the necessity to align the document with the revised Commission GES Decision. The consultants are undertaking the revision work.

A new draft will be provided to the WG GES for feedback in December 2016, after which a revised version of the document will be produced.

The Commission informed the MSCG that it is unlikely that the document couldbe finalised for adoption in 2016, as feedback from the WG GES is first needed. Rather, it was considered more appropriate to provide a version of the document to Member States and RSCs in 2017 for use and testing. In the meantime, outstanding issues that had been identified in the guidance will continue to be worked on and progressively resolved.

In response to one Member State’s question on whether the workshop on habitats will take place, the Commission clarified that there is the need to capture unresolved issues that are still to be discussed alongside worklinked to the revised Commission Decision. Therefore, there will be an overall plan about how best to tackle outstanding issues, including through ICES and JRC expert networks and workshops.

3.4.2B. Report on licencing and permitting procedures and MSFD – next steps

The Commission presented the results of the analytical study carried out last year regarding licencing and permitting procedures in Member States and how it links to the MSFD.

The following points were raised:

• Several Member States as well as the Commission commented that the report did not meet their expectations and that there were certain concernswith the methodology used by the contractors (e.g. questionnaire).
• Several Member States noted that the study questionnaire was too complex and unclear and thus they did not provide feedback to the consultants. It was also added that in the future, such questionnaires should be available in all Member State languages to encourage higher response rates, to which the Commission responded that this might entail very high costs.
• One Member State pointed out that the recommendations cannot be extrapolated as the sample of countries analysed was too small; another Member State commented that they are nevertheless practical and can be taken up for further work.
• One Member State specifically found the recommendations on environmental targets useful as well as the one on synergies.
• One Member State commented that factual inaccuracies should be corrected before the report is published.
• Several Member States explained that they need more time to analyse the document before commenting on it.

The Chair stated that additional Member States will not be analysed in the context of this study as the contract is now finished. Factual corrections are, however, welcome, in particular in relation to the factsheets. The Commission will seek factual corrections from the MSCG and will ask Member States their approval before publishing the national factsheets. Once this is done, the report will be made available to the public. For future similar studies, the Chair statedthat the Commission will now consult the Member States in advance to see how much they are willingto invest in such work in the future.

The MSCG is invited to comment on factual errors in the document in writing.

This presentation is available on CIRCABC.

3.5Other points for information

3.5.1A. Debrief from Committee on outcome of feedback mechanism, GES Decision and MSFD Annex III review, and on map of MSFD regions and subregions

The Chair presented the outcomes of the feedback mechanism on the Commission Decision and Annex III. The Commissionexplained that there are limited changes tothe texts and the two proposals received a positive vote. Complementary elements (e.g. integration rules) will be further analysed for implementation (see minutes of the Committee). The map of the MSFD regions and subregions had been finalised and would be released shortly by the EEA.

3.5.2B. UN Conference to support the implementation of SDG 14

Sweden provided information about the upcoming SDG14 conference related to the universal goal for sustainable development of oceans and seas, which it considers very important in light of climate change issues. The MSCG was informed that Sweden and Fiji developed a joint initiative to support the SDG 14 that will take place in New York on 5-9.06.2017. Ocean-related topics will be covered on 08.06.2017.

There are several partnership agreements and calls for action to provide input to the conference. All Member States and stakeholders are invited to engage in the work.

One Member State asked whether the MSCG will have a role for the preparation of this conference. The Chair replied that the Commission still needs to agree internally on its approach regarding SDGs.

3.5.3C. Our Ocean conference

DG MARE presented the next ‘Our Ocean Conference’, which will take place on 5-6.10.2017. This will be hosted by the EU in Malta. The aim is to get political commitments and the issue should be included on the agenda of the ministries for Foreign Affairs. It is also important to engage stakeholders in the preparation of the conference. Four themes will be covered: MPAs, marine pollution, sustainable fisheries, and climate change. The 2017 conference aims to have a geographical focus (Mediterranean Sea and oceans around Africa – Atlantic and Indian Ocean). The conference will deal with subjects such as Blue Growth, environmental protection, and maritime security. Some beach clean-up campaigns are also being planned.

The Commission asked Member States to reflect on their commitments and welcomes announcements from other stakeholders such as the NGOs, industry, or academia. A process will be set up with Member States to develop these commitments, which need to be concrete with clear timeline and financing. Anything done after the 2016 Our Ocean conference can qualify to be presented in 2017. If there are any questions, a team is working on this topic within DG MARE and can be approached[1] for clarifications.

3.5.4D. Horizon 2020 research project ATLAS presentation

Rob Tinch presented the four-year ATLAS project about the deep-water ecosystem-based spatial management plan in Europe ( The project started in June 2016 and covers biological, social, and economic issues. The coordinator is the University of Edinburgh, while the Maritime Spatial Planning work is done by the National University of Ireland. Twelve case studies will be developed, some of which are highly relevant to work being undertaken by the MSCG.

Ireland asked if it would be possible to contribute to the project, which the presenter will follow up on.

The coordinator also clarified that trans-Atlantic partners include Canada and the USA. OSPAR recalled that they have an advisory role in this project.

The presentation is available in CIRCABC.

3.5.5E. Horizon 2020 research project SPONGES presentation

The Deep-sea Sponge Grounds Ecosystems of the North Atlantic project was presented. The project deals with diverse types of pressures and impacts on sponges. Climate change, however, is a pressure for which the project could not yet define potential impacts for (positive or negative).