4.1 Introduction

4.1 Introduction

Section 3 of this report presented ten European significant water management issues (SWMI) which put European water bodies most at risk of achieving the WFD environmental objectives. The European SWMI have been described and their key impacts outlined on water ecosystems. Also, a summary of key measures was presented, which are available to tackle the issues and of management challenges of EU-wide relevance. A broad range of technical and management measures are already available, while details will be provided on specific measures required in the third WFD planning cycle. The third river basin management plans (RBMPs) are expected to include measures and actions, whose implementation is continued from previous planning cycles as well as new required measures.

By 2015, when the second RBMPs were published, only some measures were completed of the first Programmes of Measures (PoM) in the river basin districts. The lack of public personnel and finance as well as unexpected long planning time were identified as main obstacles to the implementation, along with missing mechanisms for implementing measures (e.g. national regulations not yet adopted) and governance issues (EC, 2019).

In the autumn of 2020 or early 2021, the European Commission will provide an overview of progress on implementing measures of the second Programme of Measures. The Fitness Check Evaluation of the WFD and the Floods Directive (EC, 2019)[1] though already indicated that the main reasons, that the WFD objectives have not been fully reached yet is due to insufficient funding, slow implementation and insufficient integration of environmental objectives in sectoral policies including gaps in EU water legislation. Similarly, the evaluation of the UWWTD concluded that the UWWTD is overall fit for purpose although there is room to enhance its positive effects and to step up implementation in a number of Member States. However, the UWWTD does not adequately deal with emerging pollutants such as pharmaceuticals and microplastics (EC, 2019).[2]

It is thus expected that the measures required to tackle the European significant water management issues can be mobilised through better implementation of the existing legislative framework on water (basic measures under WFD) and the introduction of supplementary measures that further reduce key pressures.

[1] EC, 2019, Fitness check of the Water Framework Directive and Floods Directive, https://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/fitness_check_of_the_eu_water_legislation/documents/Water%20Fitness%20Check%20-%20SWD(2019)439%20-%20web.pdf

[2] EC, 2019, Evaluation of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, https://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/water-urbanwaste/pdf/UWWTD%20Evaluation%20SWD%20448-701%20web.pdf

At the same time, the summaries of measures and management responses to several European SWMIs indicate that the following are cross-cutting challenges of EU-wide relevance to measures implementation:

• The need for more harmonization of the objectives and management responses of different directives, which set the EU policy context for taking actions and measures
• The role of new EU-level strategies such as those driven by the European Green Deal
• The need to coordinate sectoral developments with river basin management planning under the WFD
• The financing of measures

These cross-cutting challenges are discussed in this chapter, with emphasis on:

• Their role in improving and accelerating the implementation of measures to achieve WFD objectives, and
• The identification of actions and coordination requirements for the EU-wide level.

In short, in this chapter, it is argued that the implementation of measures to tackle European significant water management issues can be further enhanced and accelerated via better coordination of different EU strategies and environmental policies, especially in terms of their management responses to reduce pressures in the water environment. Also, water policy objectives need to be better integrated into other EU policy areas and strategies which deal with the sustainable growth of different sectors such as agriculture, energy, and transport. In addition, the funding of measures can be optimised e.g. via water-mainstreaming of sectoral funding and by mobilising funding beyond EU and other public funds. Finally, the potentially crucial role of measures which deliver multiple benefits across different policy objectives is discussed.

The cross-cutting challenges discussed in this chapter are outlined in Figure 17.

Figure 17           Integrated solutions for European significant water management issues (or European cross-cutting challenges for measures implementation)

The adoption of the European Green Deal in the end of 2019 sets a new milestone in European environmental policy. Its targets for more efficient use of resources, the restoration of biodiversity and pollution reduction are expected to have far-reaching impacts on several European significant water management issues identified in this report. The key aspects and strategies of the European Green Deal with relevance to EU water policy agenda are shown in Figure 18 and are further elaborated in the next section 4.2.

Figure 18           Water aspects in the European Green Deal

Source: EU Commissions presentation “Update – Green Deal and water” presented at theWFD CIS Strategic Coordination Group (SCG) meeting 4^th June 2020, available at https://circabc.europa.eu/ui/group/9ab5926d-bed4-4322-9aa7-9964bbe8312d/library/720f1b63-94f2-4fee-a48d-6531ae25ebb6/details