Progress report for
Achieve the good environmental status of EU Member States' marine waters by 2020
Achievement at a glance
The EU collaborates with the Barcelona Convention for the protection of the Mediterranean Sea and its Contracting parties to implement the ecosystem approach and Integrated Monitoring and Assessment Programme with the aim of reaching good environmental status by 2020. In 2017, the Contracting Parties of the Barcelona Convention adopted their first Quality Status Report.<br>
<br>The EU is also a contracting party to the HELCOM Convention aiming at achieving a healthy Baltic Sea environment with diverse biological components functioning in balance, resulting in a good ecological status and supporting a wide range of sustainable economic and social activities. The EU held the chairmanship of HELCOM between July 2016 and June 2018. It accomplished several achievements such as the adoption of the second State of the Baltic Sea Report and the adoption of a Ministerial Declaration in March 2018 committing to renew efforts for a healthy marine environment, through inter alia an update of the Baltic Sea Action Plan, to achieve good environmental status of the Baltic Sea by 2021.
<br>
<br>As a Contracting party to OSPAR, the EU contributes as well to the improvement of the status of the marine environment in the Northeast Atlantic and to the 2017 Intermediate Assessment of OSPAR (2017).
<br>
<br>In all marine regions around Europe, the EU provides technical and financial support to projects about the fight against marine litter. It also supported the development of a Regional Action Plan against marine litter in the Black Sea (adopted in October 2018)
<br>
Challenges faced in implementation
Challenges related to monitoring and data collection for the assessments of the status; need to enhance regional efforts for joint measures where appropriate and other challenges identified in the Commissions Assessment of MSFD Programmes of Measures (COM(2018)562).Beneficiaries
All