Acronym: LIFE24-IPE-EL-LIFE-SIP-GR-Blue
Duration: December 2025 – November 2033
Project Partners: Coordinated by the Hellenic Ministry of Environment and Energy, the project brings together 16 organizations from the public sector, academia, research institutions, regional authorities, NGOs, and the private sector.
Project Overview:
The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is a key EU tool for protecting and conserving the health of coasts, seas and oceans. It aims to achieve a Good Environmental Status (GES) for the EU’s marine waters of its member states and to sustainably protect the resource base on which marine-related economic and social activities depend. Greece, with its extensive coastline and numerous islands, plays a significant role at EU level, regarding the implementation of this Directive. The strategically important LIFE SIP GR-Blue project systematically and long-term supports the full implementation of MSFD while at the same time, considering the Nature Restoration Law as well as the Barcelona Convention.
Main Objective:
The main objective of the project is to support the effective and coherent implementation of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive in Greece by strengthening governance, monitoring, and knowledge integration mechanisms necessary to achieve and maintain Good Environmental Status across all Greek marine waters.
Expected Results:
The project is expected to deliver tangible and measurable improvements in the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive in Greece, generating impacts at national and regional level.
By project completion, a fully operational, integrated MSFD implementation framework will be in place, covering all 11 MSFD descriptors across Greek marine waters. Monitoring, assessment and reporting processes will be harmonised and applied consistently at national scale (20 Pilot sites in the 3 participating regions), involving all competent authorities and relevant scientific institutions. This will result in full descriptor coverage in national MSFD assessments, addressing previously identified gaps in biodiversity, food webs, seafloor integrity, marine litter and underwater noise.
LIFE SIP GR-Blue project has received funding from LIFE, the European Union’s funding instrument for the Environment and Climate Action program, under Grant Agreement No 101203482.
With the contribution of the Green Fund.