• EU Water Policy

• Sustainable water management for generations to come

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Diversity of regions and their waters and river basins

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Key EU Water Directives

• Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC

• Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive 91/272/EEC

• Drinking Water Directive 98/83/EC

• Bathing Water Directive 2006/7/EC

• Floods Directive 2007/60/EC

Overview and texts at

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/index.html

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Water Framework Directive key elements

• protecting all waters, surface and groundwaters;

• covering all impacts on waters;

• good quality (‘good status’) to be achieved, as a rule, by 2015;

• water quality comprehensively defined in terms of biology, chemistry and morphology;

• water management based on river basins;

• monitoring programmes for surface and groundwaters, both as a planning tool and as an assessment instrument;

• economic instruments: getting the prices right - to promote prudent use of water;

• mandatory public participation;

• … and complemented/guided by an unprecedented cooperation on implementation.

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Measures to achieve the objectives

• “Good status” as the binding general objective for all waters, entailing operational measures to achieve / maintain that objective;

• objectives and measures to be tailored to the characteristics and sensitivities of the region (“ecoregions”), and coordinated within the river basin;

• additional measures in specifically protected areas (areas subject to eutrophication; nitrate vulnerable zones; areas used or intended to be used for drinking water abstraction).

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Implementation: a continuous and transparent process

Formal transposition into national law; Dec 2003River basin district designation /May 2004

Environmental analysis; economic analysis Dec 2004

Monitoring programmes operational Dec 2006Public participation to start at the latest Dec 2006

Draft river basin management plans Dec 2008

Final river basin management plans Dec 2009

Implementation, assessment, adjustment - 2015

and further

• Objectives: to protect the environment from the adverse effects of urban waste water discharges & discharges from waste water from certain industrial (agro-food) sectors

• concerns the collection, treatment and discharge of waste waters

• Emission-oriented directive

• Precondition for attaining the water quality objectives of the Water Framework Directive

The Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive

• Designation of sensitive ares (eutrophication)

• Collection and treatment of waste water in all settlements areas and areas of economic activity (‘ agglomerations ’) of more than 2,000 population-equivalent (p.e.), and treatment of waste water from agro-food industry >4000 p.e.;

• Secondary treatment as the rule; additional nutrient removal in the (catchments of) sensitive areas;

• Deadlines for EU-15 : staged 1998-2000-2005 for EU-12 : staged along similar principles as for EU15 (maximum 2015 for small agglomerations; Romania until 2018)

• Permit procedure for treatment plants and discharges

• Monitoring of performance on treatment plants and affected waters;

Main principles

Drinking Water Directive

Key elements of the Drinking Water Directive 98/83/EC:

– microbiological and chemical parameters and values for drinking water at the tap

– regular monitoring of parameters– regular information of consumers on drinking water

quality– aggregated reporting– regular revision of the parameters and values

FloodsFloods Directive Directive

• Assessment and management of flood risks, aiming at the reduction of the adverse consequences

• Flood is defined as : water covering areas of land not normally covered by water

• All types of floods – rivers, lakes, urban areas, coastal flooding, sewerage floods, ground water floods…

• …however floods from sewerage systems can be excluded.• Flood risk includes damage to human health, economic

activity, cultural heritage and the environment.• All of the territory of the EU – national as well as trans-

boundary river basins • Co-ordination encouraged with third countries

Protectionreducing the likelihood of floods and/or their impacts by structural and non-structural measures, with a focus on non-structural measures

Recovery and reviewAssisting the return to normal conditions as soon as possible; using experiences gained for review and update of flood risk management plans

PreventionAvoiding or minimising future increases in flood risk

Emergency response coordinated civil protection response to floods; mitigating impacts on citizens, infrastructure, property and the environment in the event of floods

Preparednessproviding for flood forecasting and early warning, raising awareness of citizens and competent authorities

Flood risk management cycle

Time schedule

Transposition 26.11.2009Administrative arrangements 26.5.2010Preliminary flood risk assessment 22.12.2011Flood risk maps 22.12.2013 *Flood risk management plans 22.12.2015 **

Review /update every 6 years thereafterReporting to the Commission : 3 months after

* = date of 1st review of pressure and impact analysis under the WFD** = date of 1st review of WFD river basin management plans

Directive 76/160/EEC have been repealed by the Directive 2006/7/EC

Key points for the revision

•in line with WFD and other water legislation

• offers better health protection, based on latest research

• focus on bacterial risks - standardised methods

• shift from monitoring to risk & beach management

• take into account changes in behavior

• improve communication with the public

Transition from old to new directive

After entry into force:

• 2 years for transposition

• 5 years for BW profile

• 5 years for first quality assessment

• in practice 2011 2015 2011 ……

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Further information

Commission serverhttp://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/index.html

CIRCA system providing public access to all WFD information and documentshttp://forum.europa.eu.int/Public/irc/env/wfd/library?l=/framework_directive&vm=detailed&sb=Title

Email address for further information env-water@ec.europa.eu