POLICY AND PRACTICE REVIEWS article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Affairs and Policy
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1586918
Setting the course: aligning European Union marine pollution policy ambitions with environmental realities
Provisionally accepted
Lisa I. Devriese1*
Thomas J. Verleye1
Thomais Vlachogianni2Thomas Maes3Ben Boteler4
Linda Del Savio4
Andy M Booth5
Kathrin Kopke6- 1Flanders Marine Institute, Ostend, Belgium
- 2Mediterranean Information Office for Environment Culture and Sustainable Development, Athens, Greece
- 3Grid-Arendal, Arendal, Norway
- 4Research Institute for Sustainability – Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany
- 5SINTEF Ocean, Trondheim, Sør-Trøndelag, Norway
- 6MaREI centre, Cork, Ireland
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Pollution in coastal and marine waters is a global challenge that transcends national boundaries, affecting interconnected seas, the ocean and broader ecosystems. Addressing marine pollution requires policies that encompass not only the marine domain but the entire ecosystem, including human societies. Therefore, a comprehensive and integrated governance approach, linking land-based sources to marine environments, is essential for effective pollution management and mitigation. This study assesses the current environmental status of persistent, long-lasting and emerging pollutants (PCBs, excess nutrients, microplastics, PFAS, and underwater noise) and cumulative effects of pollution, and compares these with the set European Union (EU) environmental goals and ambitions. A systematic review of EU policy documents reveals that several targets are unclear, arbitrary, and often unattainable, limiting the effectiveness of current strategies. This paper presents five actionable recommendations to strengthen marine environmental policy, emphasizing the need for better alignment between EU ambitions and environmental realities. To enhance EU pollution policies, it is crucial to reinforce regulatory frameworks, ensure the effective enforcement of existing legislation, foster collaboration across sectors, and empower citizens and NGOs. Additionally, integrating health and pollution policies, ensuring public access to pollution data and knowledge, and establishing international leadership in pollution efforts are key for making informed decisions and achieving ambitious pollution reduction targets.
Keywords: source to sea governance, attainability of EU environmental goals, regulatory framework, Multi-dimensional approach, current environmental status, Good Environmental Status (GES)
Received: 03 Mar 2025; Accepted: 26 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Devriese, Verleye, Vlachogianni, Maes, Boteler, Del Savio, Booth and Kopke. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lisa I. Devriese, Flanders Marine Institute, Ostend, Belgium
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