Five years ago, a Wadden Sea Quality Status Report (QSR) was prepared in the framework of the North Sea QSR. The North Sea had been divided by the North Sea Task Force into ten subregions, one of which was the Wadden Sea. The CWSS was responsible for the coordination of this subregion for which a QSR was published in 1993.

Within the OSPAR framework a new QSR is due for the year 2000. It will be a report covering the whole OSPAR area, the northeast Atlantic. This area comprises five Regions:

Region I: the Arctic;

Region II: the North Sea;

Region III: the Celtic Sea (Irish Sea and adjacent waters);

Region IV: French, Spanish and Portuguese Atlantic coastal waters;

Region V: the northeast Atlantic.

For each Region, a quality status report is currently being elaborated under the supervision of a lead country. The regional reports will be finished in 1999 and will form the basis for the holistic report for the whole OSPAR area.

The work for Region II, the North Sea, is coordinated by The Netherlands. This time no subdivision of the North Sea into smaller areas has been made. There will, however, be ample possibilities to address Wadden Sea issues because all Regional Reports have selected so-called 'focus areas' which are areas with special features, such as high natural values.

The preparation of the Wadden Sea QSR, although independent of the OSPAR QSR activities, runs parallel to these, which makes it possible to submit the main conclusions to the drafters of the North Sea QSR. The Wadden Sea QSR will be finalized before the summer and published in September 1998. A first public draft of the North Sea QSR will be open for comments in January 1999.