According to the Article 11 of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD, 2008/56/ΕC) Greece has the obligation to present a set of monitoring activities (monitoring programs) in the marine waters under Greek jurisdiction in order to cover the requirements of the 11 Descriptors of the Good Environmental Status (GES), defined by the MSFD.

The MSFD monitoring programs are a combination of new monitoring activities and ongoing monitoring activities, deriving from other legal obligations of Greece as EU Member State: monitoring for the implementation of the Habitats & Birds Directives (in the marine sites of the Greek Natura network) and monitoring of the coastal water bodies for the implementation of the Water Framework Directive. The set of Ecological Indicators for each one of the 11 Descriptors was defined by the Ministerial Decision 126635 (Official Journal Β’ 3799/25.11.2016).

The Annex of the above mentioned Decision defines the sampling network and the frequency of sampling of the biotic indices or simple metrics for the 11 Descriptors.

HCMR contact person: Dr. Kaliopi PAGOU
Geographic Coverage: All the marine areas under Greek jurisdiction
Duration: 2018-2023
Project website: http://www.ypeka.gr/Default.aspx?tabid=254&language=en-US