From 15 April to 15 June 2020, the FPS Public Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment is organising a public consultation on 'the draft update of the monitoring programme for Belgian marine waters'. This monitoring programme is part of the Belgian Marine Strategy and serves to assess the environmental status of the Belgian part of the North Sea. This programme must be revised and improved in 2020. Your opinion also counts, because everyone has the right to participate in environmental decisions.
The Marine Strategy Framework Directive obliges each European member state to draw up a marine strategy for the protection, conservation and restoration of the marine environment. The directive sets the goal of achieving good environmental status for the North Sea by 2020, while also ensuring the sustainable use of marine waters. The monitoring programme was drawn up to monitor the implementation of the Belgian Marine Strategy and to measure progress towards 'good environmental status'. Elements to be monitored include biodiversity (such as porpoise bycatch), seabed integrity, non-indigenous species, eutrophication (eutrophication) and other pollution.
A first version of the Belgian monitoring programme was developed in 2014 and reported to the European Commission. This programme should be revised and improved in 2020. This public consultation stems from the Aarhus Convention, which gives everyone the right to participate in environmental decisions. The responses received will be taken into account when drawing up the final monitoring programme. More information and the monitoring programme can be found on the website of the FPS Environment:
Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee | InnovOcean Campus | Jacobsenstraat 1, 8400 Oostende, België
Tel.: +32-(0)59-33 60 00 | e-mail: compendium@vliz.be
