In-Depth Assessment of the EU Member States’ Submissions for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive under articles 8, 9 and 10

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) foresees that by 15 July 2012, Member States had to provide information on the initial assessment (article 8 of the directive), on the determination of good environmental status (GES – article 9) and on the establishment of environmental targets and associated indicators (article 10). An In-Depth Assessment (IDA) of the Member States (MS) reports for Article 8, 9, and 10 of the MSFD was undertaken by Joint Research Centre (JRC) at the request of DG Environment.

JRC’s IDA is based on reporting from the following Member States (MS): Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and United Kingdom. The source of information was mainly based on the updated reporting sheets uploaded by MS before September 2013 (Portugal provided only the national paper report by that time). The reports prepared for DG ENV by Milieu Ltd (consultant’s reports) for the article. 12 assessment and the MS’ paper reports were also consulted.