Directive 2008/56/EC of the European Parliament and of the CouncilShow full title

Article 5 Marine strategies

1. Each Member State shall, in respect of each marine region or subregion concerned, develop a marine strategy for its marine waters in accordance with the plan of action set out in points (a) and (b) of paragraph 2.

2. Member States sharing a marine region or subregion shall cooperate to ensure that, within each marine region or subregion, the measures required to achieve the objectives of this Directive, in particular the different elements of the marine strategies referred to in points (a) and (b), are coherent and coordinated across the marine region or subregion concerned, in accordance with the following plan of action for which Member States concerned endeavour to follow a common approach:

(a) preparation:

(i)

an initial assessment, to be completed by 15 July 2012 of the current environmental status of the waters concerned and the environmental impact of human activities thereon, in accordance with Article 8;

(ii)

a determination, to be established by 15 July 2012 of good environmental status for the waters concerned, in accordance with Article 9(1);

(iii)

establishment, by 15 July 2012, of a series of environmental targets and associated indicators, in accordance with Article 10(1);

(iv)

establishment and implementation, by 15 July 2014 except where otherwise specified in the relevant Community legislation, of a monitoring programme for ongoing assessment and regular updating of targets, in accordance with Article 11(1);

(b) programme of measures:

(i)

development, by 2015 at the latest, of a programme of measures designed to achieve or maintain good environmental status, in accordance with Article 13(1), (2) and (3);

(ii)

entry into operation of the programme provided for in point (i), by 2016 at the latest, in accordance with Article 13(10).

3. Member States having borders on the same marine region or subregion covered by this Directive should, where the status of the sea is so critical as to necessitate urgent action, devise a plan of action in accordance with paragraph 1 which includes an earlier entry into operation of programmes of measures as well as possible stricter protective measures, provided that this does not prevent good environmental status from being achieved or maintained in another marine region or subregion. In these cases:

(a) the Member States concerned shall inform the Commission of their revised timetable and proceed accordingly;

(b) the Commission shall be invited to consider providing supportive action to Member States for their enhanced efforts to improve the marine environment by making the region in question a pilot project.