5TH IMPLEMENTATION REPORT ON THE WATER FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE AND THE FLOODS DIRECTIVE ADOPTED

 

The European Commission adopted the 5th Implementation Report on the Water Framework Directive and the Floods Directive on 26 February 2019

The Press Statement is available here.

The Commission report and Annex with recommendations are available on the Commission’s website at the following link:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/water-framework/impl_reports.htm

The report concluded that despite the knowledge and reporting on the Water Framework Directive have significantly improved compared to the previous cycle still much remains to be done to fully achieve the objectives of the Water Framework Directive and related Directives, first and foremost by the Member States.

The document also concludes that

“Compliance with the Water Framework Directive objectives is reported as increasing gradually. Although in a number of Member States good policy measures were taken and a number of financial investments made, in many river basins improvements in water quality will still take some time. Indeed, while a large majority of groundwater bodies has achieved good status, less than half of surface water bodies is in good status, although trends in several underlying individual quality elements and substances are more positive.”

“Member States will benefit from a greater involvement of all relevant market and civil society actors to secure a better enforcement of the polluter pays principle. EU funds will continue to support these implementation efforts, including funding of research and innovation and efforts 29 towards a Digital Single Market for Water Services 30 . The path towards full compliance with the WFD’s objectives by 2027, after which exemption possibilities are limited, seems at this stage very challenging. Reporting showed indeed that, although further measures will be taken until 2021, many others will be needed beyond 2021.”