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COMMISSION NOTICE Guidelines providing a common understanding of the term ‘environmental damage’ as defined in Article 2 of Directive 2004/35/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage · European Union

| 198. | Against this background, the significance of the adverse effects on the status of the marine environment is to be determined on the basis of the baseline condition and relevant measurable data on adverse changes and related impairments. For purposes of remedial measures, adverse changes will be significant if, in respect of the area or areas of marine water affected, they result in a measurable permanent or interim loss in respect of the status of a qualitative descriptor in conjunction with the indicative list of characteristics, pressures and impacts, by taking account of ‘criteria elements’ and ‘threshold value’, as provided for under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive such that the area of marine water affected no longer conforms to the environmental status that would have applied to that area before the adverse change took effect. A qualitative descriptor would be for example concentration of hydrocarbons spilled into an area of marine water due to an accident at an offshore oil well, adversely affecting a natural habitat in the area of water concerned. The example applies also to the measurable gap between the time when the adverse effects occur and the time when, for the qualitative descriptor concerned, the baseline condition is restored.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-25 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.