A Blueprint to safeguard Europe’s water resources: main results and follow-up 22nd WG D Meeting, 15/4/2012 Jacques Delsalle, European Commission DG Environment

Blueprint Objectives Integration Adressing Water Stress Ensure sufficient availability of good quality water for sustainable and equitable water use Economic Instruments Resilience to Extreme Events Governance Good Ecological Status Knowledge Base

Knowledge Base: operational objectives Improve EU-wide economic analysis for WFD Common Implementation Strategy Integrate quantitative issues into RBMP Support better integration water policy into sectoral policies Increase interoperability of the information / decrease administrative burden. Provide indicators and targets for Europe 2020 - Ressource Efficiency Roadmap E.g. WFD Art 5: Baseline, scenarios In particular EU policy and funding instruments Integrated water resources management Water stress / water efficiency indicators

Blueprint follow-up The implementation and monitoring of the Blueprint will use WFD-CIS as platform. In the first phase (2013-2015), the objective will be: to provide support for preparation of the next RBMPs by 2015 to strengthen the knowledge base and tools that will support the assessment of these plans and the review of the WFD.

Knowledge-Policy Interface Improved policy making Improve comparability / transparency Fully integrate quantity and quality Ensure sectoral policy integration Improved knowledge base: Water cycle & use Ecological status Measures and policy instruments Costs and benefits Hydro-economic modelling / target setting "Knowledge-Policy Interaction" Testing measures and policy instruments River basin networks

Knowledge needs (1/2) Not only compliance checking… Build the business case for investment in measures that will deliver water policy objectives or impact water resources. Costs of inaction, scenarios, vulnerability assessments Costs and benefits measures Integration funding instruments / sectoral policies Link to macro-economic policy At all levels! European Union, Member State, River Basin, Region, sector, etc. Link to Europe 2020 and Impact Assessment Processes

Knowledge needs (2/2) Support to EU-wide impact assessment tools (base year water availability and use) Production of water exploitation, consumption, efficiency indicators Ecosystem services accounting Cost-effective production of data required under ESTAT/OECD questionnaires, SoE#3, etc. Identify gaps / ensure consistent assessment of water resources accross the EU

What does it mean in terms of indicators? Distance to good status Water exploitation / consumption indices Water efficiency / productivity Life cycle impacts Pricing / % cost recovery Vulnerability to extreme events Cost & benefits of water resource management measures

Blueprint follow-up: building blocks Water cycle & use Reference situation water availability and demand Ecological status Focus on ecological flows and vulnerability Measures and policy instruments Shared database of measures and case studies: Costs, effectiveness, impacts, applicability Hydro-economic modelling Valuation costs and benefits, including ecosystem services Baseline + scenarios: pressure on water ressources, changes in water availability Target setting / Integration into RBMP

The need for hydro-economic modelling EU-wide integrated assessment tools to support EU policy processes Water resources issues often under-represented in existing IA tools Build on EU internal capacities and reporting/statistic processes EU wide overview and differences between territories Based on realistic representation of water availability and demand for the base year Capacity building for the development of similar tools at Member State / River Basin levels Exchange of best practices Filling data gaps in monitoring, research, etc. Blueprint proposed CIS guidance

EU water balances project (2011/12) Contract for DG ENV with technical support from EEA in the context of the Blueprint Based on UN SEEA-W methodology Shift from Year /country to Month /sub-basin… Use of already reported water data and additional specific data collection Calculation based on an average 8 years input data >180.000 functional elementary catchments basis for disagregation/agregation of data

Example of results: “WEI+” 90 percentile 12

Main data gaps River discharge gaps is the major issue Jeopardising the whole exercise in many basins, in East and South-East Europe Groundwater quantitative status Divergent reporting quality across member states E.g. waste water treatment Lack of geo-localisation (national data) or geolocalised databases lacking data on water use e.g. PLATTS or E-PRTR Uncertainty on % consumptive use Irrigation, cooling, etc Economics of water demand 13

Lessons learned from the 2011-2012 process WB at sub-catchment levels with monthly resolution, under the SEEAW enhanced methodology, are technically feasible and affordable. WB tells very important information on water resource issues (for uses and ecological support) and their diversity across EU. Current data flows not adapted to the production of water balances.

Follow-up 2012 Results not published as EU product, but… … urgent need for water indicators for Ressource Efficiency Roadmap Need for further bilateral coordination with MS and sectors E.g. delineation of sub-catchments, better understanding water use, access to river flow data More Member States / sectors to be involved in the process Better integration to CIS work: Link with indicators, e-flows, economic analysis, target setting

Follow-up (2/2) Calls for tender 2013-2014 Produce revised and complete EU water balance at sub-catchment level and monthly resolution by end 2014 Address the most relevant data gaps Set the basis for a cost-efficient permanent process Geolocalised database of water use in thermal power plants and manufacturing cooling processes Costs, benefits and implementation of natural water retention measures

What could be the options for the medium term? Source data Consistency check Water balance, indicators, scenarios & impact assessments MS/RB balance & model Ensure availability & interoperability Ensure availability & interoperability Consistency check Consistency check Consistency check EU balance & model

Thank you! Jacques.Delsalle@ec.europa.eu