1. Concept paper on the assessment of WFD River Basin Management Plans
Water Directors meeting
Malmö, 30 Nov – 1 Dec 2009
Jorge Rodriguez Romero
WFD Team Coordinator
DG Environment, European Commission

2. WFD Obligations
Member States report river basin management plans (Art. 15.1) by 22 March 2010
Commission prepares assessment report (Art. 18) by 2012, containing in particular
(a) review of progress in the implementation of the Directive;
(b) a review of the status of surface water and groundwater in the Community undertaken in coordination with the European Environment Agency;
(c) a survey of the river basin management plans submitted in accordance with Article 15, including suggestions for the improvement of future plans …
The Commission and the EEA intend to keep a fluid dialogue with Member States along the process

3. Document on RBMP compliance checking WD meeting Paris December 2008
Some background and principles of the exercise
The depth of the analysis should be sufficient for strategic issues
Comparison of implementation efforts and expected results
Prioritisation of issues to use resources efficiently
Transparency – proper documentation
Quality assurance procedures to ensure harmonised assessment
Clear reporting is a prerequisite for a proper compliance checking
Agreement that we need both WISE and the electronic versions of the plans
Providing relevant information from various perspectives
Governance
Technical issues
Strategic issues

4. Conclusions on RBMP compliance checking WD meeting Paris December 2008
The analysis should cover technical and strategic issues
Agree on the proposal to report on WISE + electronic versions of the plans
Clarification is needed on what is understood by background documents
Importance of transboundary component – roof reports should be part of the analysis
Water Directors welcome the opportunity to discuss on this important topic and look forward to continuing exchange of views on the basis of a more detailed document

5. Concept paper on the assessment of WFD River Basin Management Plans
Follows a first document and discussion at the WGD Reporting and SCG in November
Contains key questions that intend to guide the assessment of various aspects of RBMPs
In the title of the document the words “compliance checking” have been replaced by “assessment” to emphasise that not only covers legal assessment but also technical and strategic aspects
The purpose is to prepare a Commission report to the European Parliament and to the Council and therefore the analysis needs to provide strategic conclusions

8. Screening + in-depth assessment
Two steps will be taken simultaneously because
Shorten overall timing
Some key topics have been already identified that merit in-depth assessment (based on previous compliance checking exercises, strategic importance to achieve WFD goals, complexity)
Depth of the analysis will vary depending on the topic
The questions in the concept paper provide an indication of the intended depth of analysis

9. Water Scarcity and Droughts and Adaptation to Climate Change in the RBMPs
The aspects related to water scarcity and droughts and to adaptation to climate change will be assessed to provide insights on how the WFD is contributing to the objectives under these important policies
For this purpose, two chapters have been added at the end of the document to identify key questions in those areas
In case of water scarcity and droughts, the WFD related requirements are included in the various chapters along the document

10. What information will be used in the assessments?
Completeness and screening steps will be mainly based on the WISE electronic delivery
For the in-depth assessment, as the depth of the assessment increases, there will be more need to use the information contained in the RBMPs and any relevant background document
In particular, WISE electronic delivery is not designed to report the most complex methodological aspects of WFD implementation

11. Key questions Basis of the assessment of the RBMPs
Indication of the intended depth of analysis for each topic
In some cases the questions are necessarily broad and will be subject to further elaboration later on in the process
Key questions from technical/legal perspective
How provisions of WFD have been implemented
Some questions are informative, not linked to obligations
Basis for development of detailed templates for the assessment
Strategic questions related to WFD policy objectives
Questions that the Commission would like to be able to answer at the end of the process
Serve as a guide for the assessment
Many are not expected to be replied directly from the plans but will be the result of the Commission assessment

12. Background documents
WFD and CIS guidance documents require transparency on a number of key elements of RBMP
Level of detail of plans will vary among Member States: in some cases the RBMPs may include sufficient detail, in others do not
It is not possible to generalise which topics will require which kinds of background documents
One exception is the Programme of Measures, that is a background document in all cases as the plans contain only a summary
It is up to the Member States to judge which background documents are provided to the Commission to be the basis of the RBMP assessment
Topics that will likely require background documents are identified in the paper (HMWB, classification of ecological status, justification of exemptions)

13. Purpose of the document
What it is
to share with MS the approach to assess the river basin management plans
to get feedback on the approach and on priority setting
What it is not
a set of questions to be answered by Member States
the final version. It will be further refined during the process.
to be agreed with Member States

14. Table of contents 1 Introduction 2 Governance
3 Characterisation of the river basin district
4 Monitoring of surface waters and groundwater
5 Classification of ecological status
6 Designation of heavily modified water bodies and definition of good ecological potential
7 Assessment of groundwater status
8 Environmental objectives and exemptions
9 Programme of measures - general
10 Measures related to agriculture
11 Measures related to hydromorphology
12 Measures related to chemical pollution
13 Measures related to groundwater
14 Additional measures in protected areas
15 Measures related to article 9 (water pricing policies)
16 Strategy to deal with water scarcity and droughts
17 Adaptation to climate change in RBMP

15. Next steps Discussion at the Water Directors
Comments in writing until 15 December
The Commission does not intend to produce a new version of the document
Next months will be used to develop the concept further to start the assessments after March 2010