5.     European overview of ecological status, pressures and impacts

5.1.     Key messages

• More than half of the surface water bodies in Europe are reported to be in less than good ecological status or potential, and will need mitigation measures to meet the WFD objective.
• River water bodies and transitional waters are reported to have worse ecological status or potential and more pressures and impacts than water bodies in lakes and coastal waters.
• The pressures reported to affect most surface water bodies are pollution from diffuse sources causing nutrient enrichment, and hydromorphological pressures causing altered habitats.
• The worst areas of Europe concerning ecological status and pressures in freshwater are in Central Europe, in particular in Northern Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, while for coastal and transitional waters the Baltic Sea and Greater North Sea regions are the worst.