1. Discussion on compliance checking
WG D - Reporting
21 March 2006
Item 5 –
Discussion on compliance checking

2. Compliance Checking
- Article 3 reports -

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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)

8. Distribution of surface areas of RBDs29 14
Danube
Rhine

9. 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

10. 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

11. Compliance Checking
- Article 5 reports -

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. Follow up

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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