FP7 STAGES Stakeholder Consultation Workshop, Brussels, Belgium

The EU FP7 STAGES project (Science and Technology Advancing Governance on Good Environmental Status) is designed to improve the transfer of scientific knowledge to those with responsibility for implementing the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). One of the key outputs of STAGES will be a concept for a durable but flexible European Science Policy Interface (SPI) to support MSFD implementation in the long-term. A successful SPI requires the input not just of scientists and policymakers, but of all those with a stake in the protection and sustainable use of the marine environment in Europe.

STAGES is conducting a Stakeholder Consultation to collect the views and needs of a broad range of MSFD stakeholders from science, industry, civil society, NGOs, and the national MSFD competent authorities and implementing agencies. An extensive on-line questionnaire stakeholder survey has already been completed.

With the support from the European Commission, STAGES now invites stakeholders to participate in a Consultation Workshop which will be held on February 12, 2014 at the Regus Centre in Brussels. The workshop is planned as a joint activity with the FP7 DEVOTES project.

A workshop programme will be circulated to registered participants in January 2014. The event will include some short presentations to provide context but will mostly involve structured discussion, addressing issues such as optimum SPI mechanisms, extracting MSFD-relevant knowledge and dealing with geographical scale. The discussions and views collected will be used to directly inform the development of a STAGES proposal for a durable long-term European SPI to support implementation of the MSFD.