DIKE 13-2016-11 Minutesofmeeting Final

DIKE_13-2016-11rev2

Marine Strategy Framework Directive

Common Implementation Strategy 13th meeting of the Working Group on Data, Information, and Knowledge Exchange (WG DIKE)

Document: DIKE_13-2016-11rev2

Title: Minutes of the 13th meeting of WG DIKE

20-12-2016; revised 15-02-2017 based on comments received from: RO, Date prepared: OSPAR; approved by WG DIKE on 01-3-2017

Prepared by: DG Environment and Milieu

DG Environment, Marine Environment and Water Industry Unit 1 DIKE_13-2016-11rev2

Minutes 13th Meeting of Working Group on Data, Information, and Knowledge Exchange (WG DIKE)

7 December 2016, Brussels

1 Approval of the agenda and of the minutes of the 12th meeting of WG DIKE

David Connor (Unit C.2, DG Environment) and Stéphane Isouard (European Environment Agency) co-chaired the meeting. A list of participants is found in Section 7 of this report. The documents and presentations for the meeting are listed in Annex 1, and are available on CIRCABC.

One Member State asked about the INSPIRE marine pilot and the reason for it not being included in the agenda. The Commission clarified that this will be dealt with by the Technical Group on Data.

The participants approved the Draft Agenda of the meeting as well as the minutes of the 12 th meeting of WG DIKE.

1 Nature 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.

2 List of points discussed

2.1 Update on CIS activities of relevance to WG DIKE

2.1.1 Report on the Marine Directors' meeting (June 2016) The Marine Directors discussed the revised Commission Decision on criteria and methodological standards for good environmental status (GES) and the Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) Work Plan (WP) for 2016-2019. The Marine Directors endorsed the general headlines of the CIS WP, whilst recognising that some aspects will need to be amended to accommodate the outcomes of the new Commission Decision, once agreed. The Directors also discussed the outcomes of the three pilots projects on how to streamline monitoring, an aspect which should be further dealt with in the future.

2.1.2 Report on the MSFD Regulatory Committee meeting (10 November 2016) The WG DIKE was informed that the MSFD Regulatory Committee discussed the proposal for the revised Commission Decision on criteria and methodological standards for GES and the proposal for the revised MSFD Annex III, both of which were approved by a qualified majority vote. Furthermore, the map of MSFD regions and subregions was now agreed.

2.1.3 Report on the MSCG meeting (10-11 November 2016) Discussions focused on the CIS WP for 2016-2019. The duration of the WP has been extended until 2019, since there have been some delays in adopting it. There was a call for nominating co-chairs for the different Working and Technical Groups. While some nominations were received at the MSCG meeting, the position of co-chair of WG DIKE was still open for nominations until 15 December 2016. The MSCG was also informed on the status of the Article 8 Guidance, as well as the report on

DG Environment, Marine Environment and Water Industry Unit 2 DIKE_13-2016-11rev2 licencing and permitting procedures in relation to the MSFD. Finally, several research projects, which had relevance to the group’s work, presented their activities.

2.1.4 Report on the WG GES (6 December 2016) The WG DIKE was informed that a substantially updated version of the Article 8 Guidance was discussed at the WG GES. It was agreed to circulate the document for commenting and release a revised version in February 2017 for testing by Member States and the Regional Sea Conventions. Based on the outstanding issues identified in his process, a work plan will be prepared which would be delivered through the Drafting Group GES, ICES, JRC, TG Noise and TG Litter.

2.1.5 Reporting on MSFD Articles 13 and 14 The Commission presented the state-of-play of the MSFD reporting by Member States, which can be consulted on CIRCABC. This included the latest position regarding reporting on Programmes of Measures (Art. 13) and exceptions (Art. 14), where there were a number of countries who had not reported by the March 2016 deadline.

Several Member States informed WG DIKE that they plan on reporting on MSFD Article 13 and 14 in the coming weeks / months. These countries are Bulgaria, Estonia, Poland, Romania and the UK (for Gibraltar). Croatia stated that it has started the reporting process but had technical issues to resolve.

The Commission asked those Member States that had reported their PoMs but had not used the xml reporting sheet, if they could do so, as this was important for the preparation of summary statistics. This included Cyprus and Portugal

2.2 WISE-Marine

2.2.1 Business plan The Commission informed the WG DIKE that a business plan for the WISE-marine platform had been prepared by the EEA (DIKE_13-2016-02) and that it would provide an important platform to disseminate the information reported by Member States on their MSFD implementation, not only to show the progress towards achieving GES but also to make the policy more visible.

The EEA presented the business plan for the platform explaining the content, the target audience, the structure, the work plan and the expected benefits. The presentation can be accessed on CIRCABC.

Discussion: - Several Member States asked for clarifications on how WISE-marine links to other platforms, such as EMODnet and Copernicus. The EEA clarified that it is aware that streamlining work needs to be done, and this is already planned, but clarified that WISE-marine had a unique role in dissemination of MSFD reporting information. - A Member State called for links with MSFD Article 19.3 to be ensured and data from monitoring to be brought into the platform. It was also stated that the work needs to be better streamlined with the INSPIRE Directive which is explicitly mentioned in the MSFD. It was clarified by the EEA that the initial priority would be to accommodate and disseminate the reported MSFD 'information' (e.g. from Art. 8, 9, 10, 11, 13 and 14) and that underlying MSFD 'data' (from monitoring) and 'data products' (from assessments) could be considered later. There was often confusion over these three types of 'data', requiring a more consistent use of terms. - A Member State called for a stronger involvement of Member States in the development of the business model, dissemination, and exploitation of the tool. The EEA advised that this would best be achieved through regular dialogue in WG DIKE.

- It was asked for the work to better coordinate and link WISE Freshwater and WISE Marine. Furthermore, it was asked to also make sure to include Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) aspects in the process. - A Member State commented that there are gaps in the document and that it would be preferable to comment on a nearly complete document. The EEA clarified that the approach is to circulate it already while still developing it further, in order to advance the work. - A Member State asked to ensure that research data and monitoring data (both of which are used in the MSFD reporting) are not bundled together and can be clearly marked. - In response to a question about the different WISE tools, the EEA clarified that the WISE platform is to disseminate information, ReportNet (the system) is a tool for reporting the data, while volunteer data submissions based on data calls are called WISE 1, 2, 3 etc. It was agreed to clarify the terminologies used in the text.

The WG DIKE was invited to submit written comments on the document by 31 January 2017 to [email protected].

2.3 Proposals for reporting on updates of the initial assessment (Art. 8), determination of GES (Art. 9) and environmental targets (Art. 10), taking account of the Revised GES Decision and MSFD Annex III, the draft guidance on Article 8 assessments, reporting under other EU policies, regional assessments and the common indicator structure The EEA presented a proposal for the 2018 reporting (updating of MSFD Articles 8, 9 and 10) (DIKE_13-2016-03). The first part of the presentation focused on the general principles for the upcoming reporting exercise, while the second part discussed some aspects in more detail and presented a proposal for a timeline in implementing the work. The presentation of the proposal can be accessed on CIRCABC.

The Commission highlighted the importance of the 2018 reporting as it should show the progress towards achieving GES and would provide the information needed to populate WISE-Marine. The EEA had proposed some innovative ways to improve the reporting, including 'pre-filling' with information reported in other fora. It was stressed that any proposed pre-filling will be done to facilitate the reporting work of Member States and that if a Member State does not want to use the pre- filled information, then they can disregard them and enter data as they see more fit.

Discussion: - Several Member States asked for the reporting system to allow for use of both the old and new Commission Decision criteria (and indicators in the context of the old Commission Decision). - A Member State indicated that while using the new Commission Decision criteria may be possible for some aspects, it would not be possible for all aspects. - Several Member States confirmed that they would like to have web-forms available as part of the 2018 reporting tools. - A Member State commented on the timing issue that relates to the planned Birds and Habitats Directives reporting, which is a year later (2019) than that of the MSFD (2018). It was specifically asked if the Member States are to link the data (data which will be updated in 2019) or should they report the 2013 data from the Habitats Directive. The EEA clarified that it considers this as a matter of national coordination, whilst it was noted that more recent regionally consistent biodiversity assessments will be available for HELCOM and OSPAR regions. - Several Member States commented that they welcomed the pre-filling with RSC data, yet there should also be the option of adding comments and the ability to keep track of any manual changes made by the Member State during the reporting process. One Member State

asked for RSC data not to be included in the pre-filling. The EEA replied that Member States would be able to discard pre-filled data if they wished to. - A Member State asked if there will be a template prepared for the paper reports. The Commission clarified that this is not planned for at present, as the focus is on preparing xml reporting sheets, which should contain the necessary information, with URL links to underlying indicator assessments and datasets used. Member States may also report a paper report. In response to a related question, the Commission stated that Member States are free to use any format they want for their paper report including combining Articles 8-9-10. - A Member State asked if there will be guidance prepared for the planned updates of the PoMs, which are due in 2018. The Commission clarified that this will be considered by WG DIKE and WG POMESA, but since many Member States have not yet finalised the 2016 PoM reporting, a discussion of this aspect is considered premature. - A Member State commented that in relation to integration rules, the 2018 reporting should be simpler than the 2012 reporting. In this regard, it asked for the reporting sheets not to include the new Commission Decision criteria. The Commission replied that it is necessary to provide the ability to Member States to report in accordance with the latest version of the Decision, yet difficulties by some Member States in certain regions to fully achieve this were acknowledged. - A Member State asked for the possibility of contributing to approaches of integration levels and rules (i.e. section 5.2 on page 8). The Commission noted that this would be possible but that such content must feed into reporting guidance document.

The EEA and the Commission welcomed these comments, which provided a good basis for developing a more specific proposal on 2018 reporting.

WG DIKE were invited to send written comments on the paper of this agenda item to the Commission ([email protected]) and the EEA ([email protected]) until 31 December 2016. The paper can be accessed on CIRCABC.

Regarding the timeline for further development of the reporting requirements, the EEA / Commission made the following proposal, in view that the next WG DIKE meeting is planned for 1-2 March 2017 and MSCG for the end of April 2017: - On the basis of the outline proposal and the comments made on it by Member States, a more detailed proposal will be developed by the EEA for discussion on 1-2 March by a Drafting Group meeting of WG DIKE. The proposal would then be revised for a WG DIKE meeting in early April, with the aim to finalise if possible the reporting sheet and guidance that would be sent to the MSCG for endorsement at their April 2017 meeting. - This timeline proposal was recognised as being very ambitious, but now the GES Decision had been finalised there was an urgent need to agree on reporting guidance as soon as possible, to both give clarity to Member States on reporting requirements and to allow for the necessary technical developments and tool testing. - One Member State requested that the draft reporting guidance be circulated to WG DIKE in early February 2017 in order to have enough time to review and comment on it by early March. - WG DIKE agreed to proceed as proposed.

The WG DIKE was informed on the progress made by a support project for the implementation of the MSFD in Bulgaria and Romania (DIKE_13-2016-04). Phase III of the project is supporting the preparation of a roof report for 2018 reporting and is providing valuable support for the coordinated implementation of the MSFD in this region. Bulgaria mentioned that they are also working on finding common indicators in line with the new Commission Decision. Bulgaria and Romania thanked the Commission for the support project.

2.4 Geographic areas for MSFD reporting

2.4.1 Map of MSFD marine regions and subregions (Article 4) The Commission informed the WG DIKE that the map of MSFD regions and subregions was finalised at the MSFD Regulatory Committee meeting in November 2016. The EEA had now processed the map as well as the data files and they can be accessed online at http://marine.discomap.eea.europa.eu/arcgis/rest/services/Marine/Marine_regions_subregions/MapSer ver. The layers will be published in January 2017; as such a new version of the map service will be published in the new year.

Furthermore, the technical document that describes the background of the maps will be finalised and released in early 2017.

UNEP / MAP asked if there is possibility of introducing changes in the subregion boundaries in relation to southern Mediterranean countries. The Commission replied that there are no such plans at present.

Romania thanked the Commission for considering Romania’s and Bulgaria’s arguments in relation to not including the Azov Sea and Marmara Sea in the Black Sea marine region. Regarding D1C1 – D1C4, Romania asked to delete the term ‘all’ in front of the regions because baleen whales are not present in the Black Sea.

2.4.2 Follow-up process on the MS marine waters (Article 3.1) The Commission recalled that after the 2012 reporting, many technical issues regarding the boundaries of marine waters, as reported by Member States, were identified. A process had started by asking Member States to check and refine the boundaries, where this was due to non-jurisdictional aspects, as well as clarifying the definitions of the marine waters in some cases. While this work had been put on hold in 2016, it will now be taken up again in view of the links to the geographical reporting areas needed for 2018 reporting. The Commission asked Member States to submit any additional updates they may have regarding their boundary GIS files of marine waters (and associated 4geo.xml file).

2.4.3 Reporting areas of the MSFD The ETC-ICM (ICES) presented a proposal for development of a consistent set of geographic reporting units of the MSFD, based on the marine regions, subregions, subdivisions, MS national boundaries and WFD territorial and coastal water bodies (DIKE_13-2016-05rev). The related paper of this presentation can be accessed on CIRCABC.

The Commission informed the WG DIKE that there is the need to prioritise the work as there was a short term need for a coded list of areas (to be used in the reporting sheets) whilst the finalisation of the GIS layers was likely to take longer.

Discussion: - A Member State asked for a clarification on the difference between assessment areas and reporting units as the terms were being used inter-changeably. The EEA clarified that they are developing the system of 'MSFD reporting units' (equivalent to the WFD system of water bodies). However, as the MSFD reporting units are often large, they could for practical purposes include several assessment areas, but these would not be used for formal reporting purposes. The Commission welcomed any illustrative examples of the difference between assessment areas and reporting units that could be shared. OSPAR mentioned that the document “OSPAR_Assessment_vs_ReportingUnits.doc” would be provided for information on OSPAR Assessment Unit and Reporting Units.

- A Member State clarified that in the framework of the MSFD Member States are to assess all their marine waters, and for some MS, while not in line with the legal definition, this should include transitional waters which are considered closely associated to the marine environment, as allowed for in the new GES Decision. The Commission indicated that Member States could define their areas for reporting but these may not need to be restricted to the area strictly defined as marine waters. - A Member State welcomed the nested approach highlighting that it will lead to consistent assessments. A clarification was asked about the process of how the data will be compiled and how Member States can contribute to it. The ETC clarified that there will be consultations with Member States as part of the process and it will be possible to give such input. - Several Member States asked for Figure 1 of the report to be amended to better reflect overlaps in Member State’s marine waters, between certain countries such as DK-UK and FR- ES. - A Member State asked for their reported sub-divisions to be better incorporated in the document (in relation to table 5.3). It was also noted that for the future assessments, some changes in assessment areas are expected, as such the reporting should allow for the ability to use new assessment areas. - One Member State commented that under the WFD scales are different, and asked for clarifications in terms of how this will be reconciled. The Commission clarified that the new Commission Decision refers to subdivisions and the Reporting areas’ document refers to those. - For any region-specific issues (particularly for the Mediterranean and Black Sea), the Commission suggested there may be a need for separate discussions to develop more coherent approaches. - One Member State asked if it will be possible to choose different scales than the ones listed in the proposal. The Commission clarified that the ‘Reporting areas’ document suggests these based on the new GES Decision, but Member States need to apply these in an operational way. - It was requested for baleen whales to be deleted from the text in relation to the Black Sea. - Portugal stated that they have reported their geographical areas (marine waters) and this should be reflected in the document.

WG DIKE was invited to send feedback on the paper to the Commission ([email protected]) and the EEA ([email protected]) by 31 December 2016.

2.5 Forward work plan for WG DIKE

2.5.1 CIS Work Plan 2016-2019 The Commission presented the main tasks which are part of the CIS WP 2016-2019 that relate to WG DIKE. The WP can be consulted on CIRCABC.

A Member State commented on the timeline for the task on the revision of the reporting arrangements for Articles 8-9-10 which it considered should be tackled as soon as possible (by March 2017), as it will influence most of the work for the coming years. The Commission stated that that timeline is too short and that the aim, as agreed under section 3.3, is to have it ready by the April 2017 meeting of MSCG.

A Member State asked for the development of a guidance for the determination of GES with WFD approaches.

Another Member State called for considering the REFIT recommendations, especially in relation to the work related to assessments feeding into MSFD Article 20.3 (b) report.

2.5.2 Preparations for the 2018 reporting Discussed under Section 3.3 of these minutes.

2.5.3 Guidance on work plan of TG Data The TG Data mandate relates primarily to implementation of MSFD Article 19.3. This is outlined in the WP 2016-2019 which presents the Terms of Reference of the work. The tasks were outlined to the WG DIKE and can be consulted on CIRCABC.

One Member State called for INSPIRE to be better referenced in the specific tasks which will be outlined as part of the mandate for TG Data.

Clarification was asked on how TG Noise and TG Litter work will be coordinated with TG Data. The Commission clarified that the data requirements that are mature enough from these groups will be fed into TG Data.

The work plan will be further developed and presented at the next WG DIKE meeting in April 2017. There is also a provisional date for a TG Data meeting in May 2017 at the EEA in Copenhagen.

2.6 Any other business No points were raised.

3 Conclusions/recommendations/opinions  WG DIKE to send comments on the MSFD reporting concept paper and the MSFD reporting units paper by the end of December 2016  WG DIKE to send comments on WISE-marine business plan by the end of January 2017  It was decided to hold a Drafting Group DIKE meeting on 1-2 March and then a WG DIKE meeting in April 2017 in order to rapidly advance the work for the 2018 reporting of Articles 8-9-10.

4 Next steps

Action points Who When Send comments on MSFD 2018 reporting concept paper WG DIKE End of December (Paper DIKE_13-2016-03) 2016 Send comments on MSFD reporting units paper (Paper WG DIKE End of December DIKE_13-2016-05) 2016 Send comments on the WISE business plan (Paper WG DIKE End of January DIKE_13-2016-02) 2017

5 Next meeting

The next DIKE meeting is to be held in the first week of April 2017 (to be confirmed).

6 List of participants

Member State Organisation / Ministry Last name First name BE Belgium Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences Scory Serge BG Bulgaria Marine Waters Protection and Monitoring Barova Stela

Member State Organisation / Ministry Last name First name department Marine Waters Protection and Monitoring Milkova Tanya department HR Croatia Croatian Environment Agency Juren Anica Croatian Institute of Oceanography and Roje Busatto Romana Fisheries The Danish Agency for Water and Nature DK Denmark Løvendahl Raun Ane-Marie Management EE Estonia Estonian Environmental Research Centre Nurmik Marek Ministry of the Environment of Estonia Andresson Mai Ministry of the Environment of Estonia Villmann Agnès FI Finland Finnish Environment Institute Bruun Jan Erik Finnish Environment Institute Korpinen Samuli Institut francais de recherche pour l'exploiration FR France Huguet Antoine de la mer (IFREMER) Ministère de l'écologie, du développement Naizot Florence durable et de l'énergie DE Germany Federal Institute for Hydrology Busskamp Ralf Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) Kleber Sven-Henrik Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) Krause Jochen Landesamt für Landwirtschaft, Umwelt und ländliche Räume des Landes Schleswig- Hiemcke Ramon Holstein (LLUR) Landesamt für Landwirtschaft, Umwelt und ländliche Räume des Landes Schleswig- Reimers Hans-Christian Holstein (LLUR) MSFD Secretariat Function for the Federal Weiss Andrea Ministry of the Environment Hellenic Ministry for the Environment, Energy EL Greece Vasilopoulou Vassiliki Celia and Climate Change / HCMR Institute for Environmental Protection and IT Italy Giorgi Giordano Research (ISPRA) LV Latvia Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology Strake Solvita LT Lithuania Environmental Protection Agency of Lithuania Zakaraite Dovile The NL Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment Borst Kees Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment Enserink Lisette Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment Kinneging Niels Institute of Meteorology and Water PL Poland Wlodzimierz Krzyminski Management National Water Management Authority Dembowska Adriana Direcção-Geral de Recursos Naturais, PT Portugal Lopes Vera Segurança e Serviços Marítimos (DGRM) Direcção-Geral de Recursos Naturais, Silva Ana Margarida Segurança e Serviços Marítimos (DGRM) RO Romania Ministry of Environment and Climate Changes Mihail Otilia SI Slovenia Slovenian Environment Agency Gosar Leon Slovenian Environment Agency Zupan Vrenko Dunja ES Spain Centro de Estudios de Puertos y Costas de la Maza de la Cruz Elena Swedish Meteorological and hydrographical SE Sweden Fyrberg Katarina Institute Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Petterson Karin

Member State Organisation / Ministry Last name First name Management (SwAM) United Department for Environment, Food and Rural UK Moxon Richard Kingdom Affairs Regional Sea Conventions RSC Barcelona Convention (UNEP/MAP) Secretariat Hart Virginie RSC Helsinki Convention (HELCOM) Secretariat Kaitaranta Joni RSC OSPAR Commission Secretariat Moulton Chris OSPAR Commission Secretariat Foden Jo Stakeholders & International organisations International Council for the Exploration of the IGO Holdsworth Neil Sea (ICES) EU Commission / European Environment Agency / Consultants Consultants Milieu Ltd Barsoumian Sarine European Commission, DG Environment, Unit EC DG ENV Connor David C.2 Marine Environment and Water Industry European Commission, DG Environment, Unit Martin-Roumegas Lydia C.2 Marine Environment and Water Industry EC DG JRC European Commission, Joint Research Centre Palialexis Andreas EEA European Environment Agency Del Barrio Irene European Environment Agency Isoard Stephan European Environment Agency Tejedor Ana European Topic Centre for Inland Coastal and ETC-ICM Marine Waters (Institute for Water of the Peterlin Monika Republic of Slovenia) European Topic Centre for Inland Coastal and Marine Waters (International Council for the Holdsworth Neil Exploration of the Sea)

Annex 1 List of documents and presentations

Documents DIKE_13-2016-01rev_DraftAgenda DIKE_13-2016-02_WISE-Marine DIKE_13-2016-03_2018reportingArt8-9-10 DIKE_13-2016-04_BG- RO_2018roofreport_MilieuBG-RO

DIKE_13-2016-05rev_ReportingUnits

Link to DIKE_12-2015-16_Minutes_Final.doc Link to DRAFT Commission Decision GES criteria.pdf Link to DRAFT Commission Directive replacing Annex III MSFD.pdf

Link to GD13_CommonStructureForIndicator-basedAssessments_20160407_Final.doc Link to GES_16-2016-02_Guidance_MSFDArt8.docx

Link to MSFD_CIS WP 2016-19.pdf

Presentations DIKE_13-2016-06_State of play_MSFDreporting DIKE_13-2016-07_WISE-Marine DIKE_13-2016-08_MSFD2018reporting_generalApproach DIKE_13-2016-09_MSFD2018reporting_reportingUnits DIKE_13-2016-10_TG-DATA_work

DG Environment, Marine Environment and Water Industry Unit 11