1. Marine Strategy Framework Directive: Transposition and Implementation
State of Play on Legal Aspects
European Commission
DG Environment
Marine Environment and Water Industry Unit
MSCG
5 November 2015, Brussels

2. Conformity checking of MSFD transposition
State of play
Pilots and infringements
Reporting under Art and Art 11
Follow-up to Article 12 Recommendations
Regional / Bilateral Follow- ups
Letters from Member States
PoMs and Strategic Environmental Assessments
Objectives of the presentation:
- to present the state of play of transposition conformity check
- to present status of reporting
Disclaimer: simply update on where we are, not an indication of any future action (closing or opening procedures)
DG ENV

3. Transposition - Conformity Checking Pilots
Conformity study assessed and no pilot or pilot closed No more issues
Conformity study assessed and pilot open
Conformity study not yet assessed
Pilot yet to be open BE RO IE PL DK LV FI DE ES LT FR IT SI HR NL BG PT CY SE MT UK EE
NB All Member States have transposed the MSFD into their national legislation, although PL only completed this in early 2013 following legal action from the European Commission (C- 245/12 - Commission / Poland). After receipt of the national legislation, the Commission undertakes a conformity check for each Member State's legislation, excluding landlocked Member States who are not concerned by this exercise (AT, CZ, HU, LU, SK).
Main message:
Conformity checking on transposition has been done by batch, taking group of country after group of country: 3 batches
Be careful, the above doesn't mean that the tranposition is fine
Conformity checking = studies, that are being assessed, to evaluate whether necessary to open pilot / request clarifications. This has been done for the 1st batch, a number of pilots that had been open are now closed (more details on pilots under this 1st batch on following slide)
We are aware a number of countries are currently taking action to resolve the problems
!! Possibly additional pilots for remaining countries once conformity study assessed !!
DG ENV

4. MSFD Scoreboard Last updated 4 Nov 2015 Art. 26 Art. 7 Art. 8/ 9/10
Last updated 4 Nov 2015
Art. 26
Art. 7
Art. 8/ 9/10
Art 11
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Art. 26
Art. 7
Art. 8/ 9/10
Art 11
Latvia
Lithuania
Malta
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden UK
Based on fish scoreboard available on website
Compared to last version from November, more "green" in the Article 11 column, but still some reports missing that were due more than a year ago.
Received
Part received
Not received

5. Non-reporting Pilots
Pilot currently open for non-reporting of monitoring programme:
Greece
[Malta] – Report received on 30 Oct 2015 UK
Infringement:
Poland – Non reporting of environmental targets. Letter of formal notice Oct 2015.
DG ENV

6. Follow-up Art. 12 Recommendations (8-9-10)
Article 12 Recommendations on Art
EC Report adopted on 20 Feb 2014
Letters to MS sent on 22 April 2014
Regional meetings
Meeting with Black Sea MS: March 2014
Meeting with Mediterranean MS: 9-10 April 2014
Meeting with HELCOM MS: May 2014
Meeting with OSPAR MS: May 2014
Bilateral meetings
Meeting with PT: 16 December 2014
Meeting with PL: 17 December 2014
Meetings' Conclusions all available on CIRCA

7. Follow-up to Article 12 Recommendation MS Replies (Status 29 May 2015)
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Malta
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden UK
MS sent a reply to the Commission
MS did not send a reply to the Commission
A progress report on updated GES and targets will be published along with the package published probably in March 2016
Commission's report on MS monitoring programmes
Commission's recommendation on MS monitoring programmes
Progress report on Art We have assessed, out of the above letters, which MS have updated their GES and targets compared to the ones reported in The following 6 MS seem to have communicated updated GES and/or taregts: BG, CY, IE, IT, PT, RO. These are the ones on which the progress report will focus.
MS replies now all available on CIRCA.

8. PoMs and Strategic Env Assessment
Reminder about importance of assessing whether SEA Directive applies to your PoMs
SEA Directive objective: ensure that an environmental assessment is carried out for plans and programmes
Conditions apply
=> SEA Directive applies to PoMs depending on their content and the types of measures included
NB Also mentioned in Recommendation on PoMs
I would like to recall that the objective and principles of the SEA Directive apply on their own merits. The SEA Directive has a broader scope compared to the MSFD, and where appropriate, it has to be applied before the adoption of the programmes referred in Article 13 of the MSFD.
The objective of the SEA Directive is to ensure that an environmental assessment is carried out for plans and programmes, within the meaning of Article 2(a) and 3 of the Directive. The programme of measures fulfil the conditions of Article 2(a), as they are required by EU law and are subject to an adoption process; they also fulfil one of the conditions of Article 3 (as they are related to water management). The last condition (i.e. whether a particular programme of measures shall set the framework for future development consent of projects listed in the EIA Directive) is also relevant. In this light, the programme of measures has to be examined with a view to verifying whether the measures covered by its content include any conditions to be complied with when projects are implemented.
The last condition, however, is without prejudice to the application of Article 3(2)(b) of the SEA Directive (i.e. SEA triggered, if a programme of measures is likely to have effects on Natura 2000 sites) and Article 7 of the Aarhus Convention, which can be applicable to the these programmes.
The SEA Directive would therefore apply to the programmes of measures depending on their content and the types of measures included therein.
Member States are responsible to decide whether MSFD programmes should be subjected to an environmental assessment, or not, based on its content. However, based on the experience with the handling of different programmes, we can assume that it is very likely that the programme of measures will set the framework for projects and thus will have to undergo an SEA.
The above position is coherent with the Commission's Guidance on the implementation of Directive 2001/42/EC [ ] and with the case-law which was developed in the meantime.

9. Thank you!