The Helsinki Commission (HELCOM), also known as the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, is an intergovernmental organisation and regional sea convention in the Baltic Sea area. It comprises ten Contracting Parties (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the EU) forming a platform for environmental policy making at a regional level, with the goal of protecting the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution through intergovernmental co-operation.
The Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) is the public body that advises the UK and devolved Governments on UK-wide and international nature conservation. They are responsible for the conservation of the offshore marine environment, including a key role in the provision of advice on the designation and management of offshore MPAs.
AQUIND Interconnector is a new subsea and underground High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) electric power transmission link between the South Coast of England and Normandy in France. EMODnet Seabed Habitat’s broad-scale predictive habitat map for Europe, enabled AQUIND to conduct their Environmental Impact Assemssment scoping report in order to identify the main habitat types reported in the region that intersects the proposed cable route.
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) is responsible for creating, managing and making sense of knowledge to support European policies with independent evidence. This includes developing innovative tools and making them available to policy makers, anticipating emerging issues that will need addressed at EU level, understanding policy environments and sharing knowledge with EU countries, the scientific community and international partners.
SIMCelt was a two-year cross-border project involving partners from the UK, Ireland and France. It's objectives were to support co-operation between EU Member States on the implementation of the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive in the Celtic Seas.
EMODnet Seabed Habitats data enabled the mapping of potential disturbance to benthic habitats due to fishing in the north-east Atlantic. The assessment was part of the wider OSPAR Intermediate Assessment 2017, which evaluates the status of the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic.
Orsted Power (UK) Ltd are responsible for the development, construction and operation of offshore windfarms across Europe. Hornsea Project Three has been proposed in the North Sea, off the North Norfolk Coast, with the potential to be generating up to 2,400 MW of electricity, the average daily needs of approximately 2 million UK homes.
The pan-European map presenting the distribution of modelled broad scale seabed habitats (EUSeaMap v2016) made available through the EMODnet Seabed Habitats project, was crucial in the assessment recently performed by ISPRA in collaboration with the European Environment Agency to compile information on the distribution of all marine broad-scale habitats for the whole Western Mediterranean basin.
NIVA Denmarkis a regional office under the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), an institution with over 50 years experience in applied aquatic science. NIVA Denmark is focussed on applied research in aquatic ecosystems and evidence-based consultancy. Their key areas of research include eutrophication, hazardous substances, biodiversity and ecosystem health, as well as the implications of multiple human activities in aquatic environments.
