Abstract
Recent additions to marine environmental legislation are usually designed to fill gaps in protection and management, build on existing practices or correct deficiencies in previous instruments. Article 13 of the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires Member States to develop a Programme of Measures (PoM) by 2015, to meet the objective of Good Environmental Status (GES) for their waters by 2020. This review explores key maritime-related policies with the aim to identify the opportunities and threats that they pose for the achievement of GES. It specifically examines how Member States have relied on and will integrate existing legislation and policies to implement their PoM and the potential opportunities and difficulties associated with this. Using case studies of three Member States, other external impediments to achieving GES are discussed including uses and users of the marine environment who are not governed by the MSFD, and gives recommendations for overcoming barriers.
Highlights
Europe has a long history of implementing legislation to protect the marine environment (Boyes & Elliott, 2014) and currently has over 200 directives, regulations and other forms of policy developed for the sustainable use of marine resources and for their conservation and protection (Beunen et al, 2009)
The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is a unique directive in being the first piece of legislation applied across European regional seas that requires assessing the range of issues encompassing overall marine environmental sustainability (European Commission, 2008; Borja et al, 2010; Long, 2011; van Leeuwen & Kern, 2013; van Leeuwen et al, 2014)
Even though the MSFD is considered to be the most encompassing directive when dealing with the marine environment, its effectiveness of achieving Good Environmental Status (GES) seems to be directly related to the success of other European Union (EU) legislation
Summary
Europe has a long history of implementing legislation to protect the marine environment (Boyes & Elliott, 2014) and currently has over 200 directives, regulations and other forms of policy developed for the sustainable use of marine resources and for their conservation and protection (Beunen et al, 2009). These include its nature as a framework directive, which allows Member States the freedom and power to interpret GES and its descriptor indicators in their own way satisfying subsidiarity while paradoxically creating differences in implementation (van Hoof, 2010, Rätz et al, 2010; Breen et al, 2012; Long, 2012; van Leeuwen & Kern 2013; van Leeuwen et al, 2014) It contains the vague wording of key definitions in the directive such as ‘good environmental status’ (Long, 2011, 2012; Breen et al, 2012; Theil, 2013) which confusingly, uses the same acronym as Good Ecological Status in the WFD (Mee, et al, 2008; Borja et al, 2010). It considers the activities outside the control of European legislation which may have an adverse impact on achieving GES (see Elliott et al, 2015) and gives recommendations for overcoming these barriers
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