Tasks and responsibilities

Directorate-General for Spatial Development and Water Affairs (DGRW)

The DGRW at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Watermanagement and the Directorate-General for Nature and Regional Policy at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature jointly form the commissioning party for the monitoring program and the monitoring plan for the MFSD.

The DGRW's activities include contributing to the sustainable quality of the spatial planning and efficient use of the floor and water system of the North Sea. The DGRW is responsible for the overall North Sea policy, and accordingly for implementing legislation such as the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD (Marine Strategy Framework Directive)), the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the EU Maritime Spatial Planning Framework Directive, as well as for policy development and the North Sea States' cooperation in the OSPAR (Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic) Commission. This means that DGRW is also the commissioning party for the monitoring activities arising from these elements of the North Sea policy.

Directorate-General for Nature and Regional Policy (DGN&R)

The DGN&R at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature and the DGRW jointly form the commissioning party for the monitoring programme and the monitoring plan. The DGN&R, specifically its Nature and Biodiversity Department (N&B), has systemic responsibility for nature and biodiversity and ensures that the Netherlands fulfils its international obligations in the area of biodiversity.

The department advocates the role of nature in the process of weighing up socio-economic interests. International agreements, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2020, offer the government important frameworks for national and international activities. This means that the DGN&R is also responsible for safeguarding monitoring activities arising from these elements of Nature and Biodiversity policy, including monitoring activities pursuant to the EU Birds Directive and the EU Habitat Directive.

The DGN&R is the commissioning party for the programme of statutory research tasks for Nature (WOT Natuur & Milieu) and is responsible for coordinating and implementing the programme. The WOT Nature programme ensures that the Statutory Research Tasks in the Nature policy field are performed in a competent and reliable manner, including the preparation of international reports concerning nature. These tasks are performed on behalf of and financed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature. In addition, the DGN&R is the commissioning party for the Nature and Environment department of Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and the principal commissioning party for the ecological monitoring network NEM.

Animal Supply Chain and Animal Welfare Department (DAD)

The DAD at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature's Directorate-General for Agro and Nature Policy (DG AGRO) is responsible for sustainable fishing at sea and in coastal and inland waters, including sustainable aquaculture. The department implements national and international fishing laws and regulations. It is responsible for implementing European regulations on fisheries policy and coordinates monitoring activities pursuant to the European Council Regulation concerning the collection of data in the fisheries sector. In this context, the DAD carries ultimate responsibility for coordinating and implementing the programme of statutory research tasks for fisheries (WOT Visserij) and is accordingly the owner of this monitoring network.

Rijkswaterstaat (RWS)

Rijkswaterstaat is the coordinating manager for the North Sea and monitors the chemical, ecological, hydraulic and hydrographic quality (water motion and physical properties respectively) of the water system and sea floor through the water management monitoring programme MWTL and the national water monitoring network LMW. As the competent authority and area manager, RWS (Rijkswaterstaat) regulates and monitors application of the Marine Strategy for the Dutch Part of the North Sea and draws up management and monitoring plans for the management of the North Sea as a whole and for the Natura 2000 protected areas and MSFD areas in particular.

RWS works together with the relevant national government partners and liaises with all stakeholders in this regard. Long-term, structural monitoring activities for management and policy purposes is assigned to the MWTL and LMW monitoring programmes. RWS also carries out temporary project monitoring activities and delivers knowledge and advice to national government partners about monitoring based on policy and information needs, national monitoring networks and project-based data collection.

Marine Information and Data Centre

The primary role of the Marine Information and Data Centre (IHM (Informatiehuis Marien)) is to make available all government marine data, including research data, and information on the North Sea at a single location for public authorities, businesses, researchers and interested parties.

The establishment of the monitoring programme means that the IHM also serves as a facilitator and coordinator in the MSFD monitoring cycle.

In that role, the IHM has developed a number of tools and facilities, which are available on the IHM website. They are:

• the MSFD Timetable, which provides individuals and organisations engaged in MSFD monitoring greater insight into MSFD monitoring activities, the applicable procedures, applicable deadlines and the links with other activities and implementation stages that fall within and outside the scope of the monitoring programme, to support the various MSFD monitoring processes and subprocesses;
• an overview of the schedules that apply to the monitoring of MSFD indicators;
• an overview of the various MSFD monitoring networks that are being implemented.

All these tools provide insight into the practice of MSFD monitoring, a prerequisite for optimising the efficiency of MSFD monitoring. The IHM will stay alert to new opportunities in this area and promote these where possible.