1. Strategic Coordination Group State of transposition and implementation
22 February 2006
Agenda item 5 –
State of transposition and implementation
– first results -

2. Content
WFD Scoreboard
Approach for conformity and compliance checking
First results for legal transposition, Art. 3 and Art. 5 compliance checking
Conclusions and next steps

3. Report partially submitted
“WFD Scoreboard” for
Country
Notification (Art. 24)
Completeness
Conformity
Intercalibration (Site selection)
River Basin Districts (Art. 3 Reporting )
WISE submission
RBD Analysis (Art. 5 Reporting)
(non) communication
(non) conformity
(incorrect) implementation
Symbols
Explanations 
Report subm. +WISE 
Report submitted 
Report partially submitted 
Report not submitted
WFD Scoreboard
Status of information (28 May 2004):
The WFD Scoreboard gives a quick overview on the performance of the Member States as regards the legal transposition and the implementation elements of the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC (WFD) which have deadlines during 2004 and 2005.
Disclaimer:
The information in the tables, although attempting to be accurate and up to date, may not necessarily reflect the latest formal information that is available to the Commission. Hence, this information does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission. It intended for general information to the public but is not the basis on which the European Commission decides upon the necessity to launch legal proceedings against the Member States for not fulfilling the obligations of the Directive. Thus, it can not be interpreted as an overview table on ongoing or planned infringement cases.
Note: “WFD Scoreboard“ does not provide any information whether report is satisfactory and/or in line with the WFD

4. WFD Scoreboard 2004/2005 (EU 25 MS - part 1/3)AT BE CY CZ DE DK EE EL
Notification
(Art. 24)  * 
**
Intercalibration
(Site selection)
River Basin Distr. (Art. 3 Reporting )
WISE submission 
RBD Analysis
(Art. 5 Reporting)
Transposition of the WFD in the 15 former Member States
Status of information (28 May 2004):
Out of the 15 former Member States, 5 (AT, DK, EL, ES, IE) have notified the legal instruments to transpose the Water Framework Directive in time 2004.
In addition, Germany and Belgium have partially transposed the Directive. Germany has adopted a national framework legislation but adoption of specific legislation in the 16 Federal States („Länder“) needs to be completed. Only few „Länder“ have finalised that process yet. In Belgium, only the Flemish Region has transposed the WFD, Wallonie and Brussels Region are still working on the transposition.
From January to May, UK (with the exception for Gibraltar), France and Sweden have notified their legal transposition.
*: transposition for Brussels Region missing
**: first non-compliance case

5. WFD Scoreboard 2004/2005 (EU 25 MS - part 2/3)ES FI FR HU IE IT LU LT
Notification
(Art. 24)  * 
Intercalibration
(Site selection)
River Basin Distr. (Art. 3 Reporting) 
WISE submission
RBD Analysis
(Art. 5 Reporting)
Transposition of the WFD in the 10 new Member States
Status of information (28 May 2004):
Out of the 10 new Member States, 8 have transposed and notified the Water Framework Directive by the accession date. MT and SK both confirmed that the transposition is completed, however formal notification to the Commission was still pending. This is expected to happen shortly.
*: transposition for Aland Region not communicated

6. WFD Scoreboard 2004/2005 (EU 25 MS - part 3/3)LV MT NL PL PT SE SK SI UK
Notification
(Art. 24)  
Intercalibration
(Site selection)
River Basin Distr. (Art. 3 Reporting )
WISE submission 
RBD Analysis
(Art. 5 Reporting)
Infringements started by the Commission
Status of information (28 May 2004):
The Commission has sent a letter of formal notice as regards „non-communication“ to 10 Member States on 27 January Only FR and UK have responded and sent the legal instruments for transposition since then, however the UK laws did not cover Gibraltar.
Reasoned Opinions are being prepared against 9 of the former 15 Member States for June 2004 for the following reasons:
transposition missing completely: FI, IT, LU, NL, PT, SE
transposition incomplete: BE (Wallonie, Bruxelles), DE (Länder), UK (Gibraltar)
As regards the 10 new Member States, no legal procedures will be necessary as regards “non-communication”.

7. Other countries
EEA countries have recently accepted WFD inclusion in EEA Agreement (formal inclusion shortly)
Norway submitted Art 3 and is working on Art 5 reports
Bulgaria and Romania submitted Article 3 and 5 reports

8. Rulings by the Court of Justice
Non-transposition of the WFD:
C‑33/05 – Belgium ( )
C‑67/05 – Germany ( )
C-85/05 – Italy ( )
C‑118/05 – Portugal ( )
Pending: Luxemburg
Text of judgments available at:

9. Legal Transposition

10. Conformity of legal transpositon
External assessments started in March 2005 for EU10 and in Oct 2005 for EU15
DG ENV developed questionnaire developed to assist in the assessment
Results for all MS expected in spring 2006

11. Compliance Checking
- Article 3 reports -

12. Compliance checking Art. 3 (2004 report)
Assessment based on questionnaire/template
3 main questions:
- Is it complete?
- Is it clear / understandable?
- Is it compliant regarding key issues?
Key issues:
- River Basin District identification (hydrological boundaries, assignment of groundwater and coastal waters)
- Competent Authorities (legal base, clarity of assignment of tasks, coordination mechanism within RBD and MS, relation to other relevant authorities)
- International cooperation
(legal base, arrangements for coordination)
23 MS draft Reports available – summary report under preparation

13. Draft map of RBDs
Currently 23 MS:
134 RBDs
Norway:
14 RBDs
RO, BG, HR:
9 RBDs
No double counting:
96 RBDs (for 23 MS)
69 national
27 international

14. Draft map of submitted
main rivers and lakes
As submitted by MS
Criteria in reporting guidance not always followed
GIS data not usable at the moment but would be useful to be updated

15. Draft map of large
rivers and lakes
Rivers > km2
Tributaries > km2
Lakes > 500 km2
Based on MS GIS submissions and improved with ESTAT database and CCM
Selection of rivers based on ESTAT database

16. Distribution of number of RBDs
14 MS have 5 or less RBDs
5 MS have 10 or more RBDs
UK: 17 RBDs (7 CAs)
Distribution of number of CAs
10 MS have only 1 CA
5 MS have more than 10 CAs
DK: 17 CAs (13 RBDs)

17. Distribution of surface areas of RBDs29 14
Danube
Rhine

18. Compliance checking - Preliminary results (1)
Non-compliance issues:
International cooperation with EU countries or non EU MS not always considered or discussed
some CA set-up is complex with inappropriate coordination and unclear attribution of responsibilities
Questions for clarification:
Assignment of groundwater to RBD unclear
RBD boundaries (ie. administrative basis rather than river basins) was not an issue, but sometimes still unclear
Digital data set:
Cross border intrusion/overlap
No harmonisation across national borders
Incomplete coverage
Solution: update of datasets on WISE

19. Compliance checking - Preliminary results (2)
Questions for clarification in all reports, however relevance and significance of open points varies
Further in-depth assessment needed and discussion with MS needed for 9 reports – non-legal follow up envisaged at the moment
Assessment reports available – will be sent to MS shortly
Facts and figures summary will be published in a few months

20. Compliance Checking
- Article 5 reports -

21. Compliance Questionnaire Art. 5 reports
Compliance questionnaire based on Art. 5 reporting sheets
Comparative screening assessment, will be complemented by selected in-depth assessment in a second step
Three main questions:
- Is it complete? (data supplied)
- Is it clear / understandable? (completeness and clarity of information)
- Is it compliant regarding key issues? (conformity checking)
Two parts of conformity: 1. methodology 2. data or results

22. Article 5 reports - first information
Draft compliance assessment for 13 MS available
Assessment scale:
- (national part of) River Basin District (134 reports)
- in addition, assessment on national level or regional level, where necessary (e.g. BE, DE)
For these 13 MS, some statistics are:
Over surface water bodies (SWB)
77% of SWB are rivers
Over groundwater bodies

23. Article 5 compliance checking - First impressions
High diversity and different level of detail –> 60 pages vs. 24 CD ROMs
Several very good examples (int. river basins)
Many reports are incomplete and not comprehensive (e.g. chemical status, agricultural pressures)
Methodologies very divers across Europe and rarely harmonised between national RBD and within int. RBD
Difficult to extract comparable data for analysis or compliance checking – need for WISE submissions
Considerable challenge to ensure that Art 5 analysis is complete and comparable when updated in RBMP

24. Follow up

25. Conclusions
90% of reporting obligations fulfilled
Lack of transposition: Application to the Court
Lack of reporting: Infringement procedure started
Assessment of compliance started
Art 3 compliance checking
– draft assessments for 22 out 25 MS
– summary report under preparation
Art 5 compliance checking
– draft assessments for half of the 25 MS
– summary report for mid-2006
- several technical reports finalised (e.g. agriculture, hydromorphology, eutrophication) – only statistics not for compliance checking

26. Next steps
Completion of assessment reports (Art 3 - Jan 2006 and Art 5 for mid-2006)
Identify feedback mechanism to MS, in particular to clarify questions
Demand for information on comparability of WFD implementation is increasing (eg. EP, MS, public)
WISE should be used to improve and update incomplete/unclear reports
Official Commission report in March 2007

27. More info
All articles 3+ 5 reports are available at
http: //forum.europa.eu.int/Public/
irc/env/wfd/library
The draft maps are available at:
http: //europa.eu.int/comm/environment/water/
water-framework/transposition.html