Marine Non-Indigenous Species
Marine Non-Indigenous Species (NIS) are animals and plants introduced accidently or deliberately into the European seas, originating from other seas around the globe. About 800 marine NIS are currently occurring at the European Union marine waters, several of which have negative impacts on marine ecosystem services and biodiversity.
NIS are treated as a distinct Descriptor (D2) of Good Environmental Status (GES) in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD): "Non-indigenous species introduced by human activities are at levels that do not adversely alter the ecosystem".
The MSFD Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) Working Group on GES has the mandate to develop common approaches for assessing the environmental status of marine waters and setting environmental targets to ensure coherence and consistency of GES across all marine regions/ subregions. A recently published JRC led report provides criteria and practical recommendations aiming at a smoother and more efficient implementation of descriptor D2 at EU level. The report constitutes a solid operational output which will easy the comparison of descriptor D2 assessment among Member States and MSFD regions/subregions.
For more information: https://easin.jrc.ec.europa.eu/easin/Documentation/MSFDDescriptor2