This work belongs to the collection of Technical Summaries of the different phases of marine strategies, which gathers the main documents of the second cycle marine strategies (2018-2024), in the context of Directive 2008/56/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of June 17, 2008, which establishes a framework for community action in the field of marine environmental policy or the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, which states that member states must take the necessary measures to achieve or maintain a good environmental status of the marine environment.

The document focuses on establishing environmental objectives. For the proposal of environmental objectives for the second cycle of Marine Strategies, the evaluation of the objectives from the first cycle (2012-2018) has been taken into account.

When reviewing the environmental objectives and defining an update proposal, possible improvements in their definitions and indicators have been identified, as well as those that could be eliminated or grouped.

In addition to the reviewed objectives from the previous cycle, new objectives have been proposed, arising from expert proposals and addressing the needs identified in the initial evaluation, as well as the observations expressed by the Commission and proposals received during the public consultation.