The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD; full title: Directive 2008/56/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 establishing a framework for community action in the field of marine environmental policy) is a European Directive originally aimed at achieving or maintaining Good Environmental Status (GES) in European marine regions and sub-regions by the year 2020 for 11 descriptors. These descriptors include: D1 Biodiversity, D2 Non-indigenous species, D3 Commercial fish and shellfish, D4 Food webs, D5 Eutrophication, D6 Seafloor integrity, D7 Hydrographic conditions, D8 Environmental contaminants, D9 Contaminants in seafood, D10 Marine Litter, and D11 Introduction of energy, including noise. The objective of Good Environmental Status had not been achieved by 2020 in all EU waters across all GES descriptors.
Overview The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is a framework directive, and this means that there are no specific targets and measures defined within the directive itself. The EU Member States therefore have a significant role in operationalising the goal of achieving or maintaining Good Environmental Status in the marine environment by the year 2020. They do so by developing their own marine strategies that must be implemented to protect or restore marine environments, as well as, reducing and preventing inputs to the marine environment to phase out pollution. The Directive is motivated by the fact that marine environments have been adversely affected by increasing human pressures in recent decades, as coastal and marine activities have expanded. The scope of the directive applies to Member States' sovereignty and jurisdiction over the Baltic Sea, the North-east Atlantic Ocean (composed of the Greater North Sea, including the Kattegat and the English Channel, the Celtic Seas, the Bay of Biscay, the Iberian Coast, and the Macaronesian biogeographic region), the Mediterranean Sea (composed of the Western Mediterranean Sea, the Adriatic Sea, the Ionian Sea, the Central Mediterranean Sea, and the Aegean-Levantine Sea) and the Black Sea, with various subdivisions defined. Member States sharing marine regions are required to cooperate so as to have coherent strategies across regions. The cooperation and thus the implementation of the MSFD is reliant on already existing regional cooperation structures such as the Regional Seas Conventions (RSCs). The number of these RSCs correspond to the four European marine regions that the MSFD prescribed for the purpose of management, listed above. The corresponding RSCs are the Helsinki Convention (for the Baltic Sea), the OSPAR Convention (for the North-East Atlantic), the Barcelona Convention (for the Mediterranean), and the Bucharest Convention (for the Black Sea). Besides policy cooperation taking place at regional level, policy coordination takes place at EU level to ensure consistency between the objectives of the MSFD and other directives, regulations and policies. The MSFD indeed has synergies with other EU policies such as the Water Framework Directive, the Habitats and Birds Directives, the Common Fisheries Policy, and Integrated Coastal Zone Management, which had to be considered in the development and planning of the Directive. More recent synergistic policies include the Single-Use plastics Directive, the EU Plastics Strategy, and the Ship-source pollution Directive to name a few. The MSFD is thus intended to integrate rather than replace related environmental legislation.
The Environmental Pillar of EU Maritime Governance Considered one of the most ambitious instruments of marine governance worldwide, the MSFD is anchored in the EU's Integrated Maritime Policy (IMP), which also comprises the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive (MSPD). The MSPD taps into a global maritime spatial planning movement, and is considered the 'Blue Growth Directive', as it requires Member States to pursue blue growth while ensuring GES. Blue growth is tied to the ocean politics paradigm of 'blue economy', which recognises the ocean as a new economic frontier and links economic growth with principles of sustainable development and environmental protection. The MSFD is considered the 'environmental directive', as it governs the environmental aspects of the blue economy under EU law. It also aims to protect the European marine environment and to ensure that natural resources are exploited sustainably, so biodiversity is maintained or achieved. The MSFD establishes criteria for this sustainable exploitation of natural resources based on the precautionary principle to prevent irreversible changes. Besides, the Directive also aims to ensure clean, healthy and productive regional seas. The MSFD thus links ocean health to human-induced pressures to guide marine management. Therefore, the MSFD also represents the paradigm of 'ocean health', which implies thinking of the oceans as 'a sick patient', requiring scientifically formed interventions to restore its well-being. The legal text of the MSFD is composed of three parts. The first is a Preamble, which lays out the broad guidelines of the Directive. Amongst other things, it is here described that the Directive constitutes an important cornerstone of the EU's future maritime policy and that the Directive aims to promote the integration of environmental considerations in all relevant policy areas. Here, an exemption regime is also included whereby states can justify not achieving GES or the environmental targets. The second part of the Directive is the operative part, and this is divided into five chapters. The third and final part is composed of six annexes, which provide standards and guidance to Member States as they are addressing the operative part. The most central here is probably Annex 1, as this is about the qualitative descriptors that Member States must determine the characteristics of GES upon. The Directive was updated in 2017. In 2017, the Commission also laid down assessment criteria and methodologies for defining GES for each descriptor to ensure coherence of definitions of GES between Member States, thereby narrowing their margin of discretion in defining GES.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
