Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC)

Directive No 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy (Water Framework Directive) entered into force on 22 December 2000. It sets quality targets and specifies methods for achieving them and maintaining good water quality. The focus is on a river basin-related approach, which requires the creation of planning specifications to achieve environmental objectives within specified deadlines on the basis of a status quo analysis.

What is the purpose of the WFD?

• Comprehensive water protection
• Good quality in all European waters within 15 years
• Water management on the basis of river catchment areas
• Economic instruments (economic analysis of water uses, selection of the most cost-effective measures, appropriate prices to promote careful use of water)
• Involving citizens - public participation

Objectives of the Water Framework Directive

The primary objective is to "prevent further deterioration and to protect and improve the status of aquatic ecosystems and the terrestrial ecosystems directly dependent on them".

Sub-targets are the good status of surface waters (good ecological and good chemical status) and the good status of groundwater (good chemical and good quantitative status).

In order to define the good ecological status, Annex 5 of the Water Framework Directive requires an intercalibration network to ensure the comparability of the results of biological monitoring by the Member States and the classifications of their monitoring systems. The procedures and limit values contained in Decision (EU) No 2018/229 are used by Member States to determine the values for the classifications in their monitoring systems as a result of intercalibration.

Deadlines for implementation

The implementation of the WFD is linked to a deadline concept. Important milestones are:

• Transposition into national law by the end of 2003
• an inventory of all water bodies by the end of 2004
• Establishment of a measuring network for water monitoring by the end of 2006.
• Preparation of management plans with programmes of measures by the end of 2009 and
• gradual achievement of a good water status in all water bodies by the end of 2015, 2021 and/or 2027

Measures

In order to realise the goals, measures are necessary, above all:

• Prevention or reduction of water pollution
• Maintaining or improving the water balance, watercourse morphology and passability to safeguard the bases of life of aquatic fauna and flora
• Maintaining or restoring a population of aquatic plants, small aquatic animals and fish that approximates natural conditions
• Protection and improvement of groundwater as a sustainably usable water resource in terms of quantity and quality

Principle of “non-deterioration”

Apart from the enumerated preservation and development measures, the Directive stipulates a prohibition of deterioration. This means that care must be taken to ensure that the current status of surface waters and groundwater is maintained and that all water-relevant activities are carried out in such a way that, based on current knowledge, any deterioration is ruled out. There are exceptions to the principle of “non-deterioration” in certain cases.

The Directive imposes an obligation on the Member States to

• lay down by law environmental targets for surface waters and groundwater
• carry out a comprehensive analysis of the river catchment areas
• create a monitoring network
• prepare river basin-related management plans including a programme of measures with the involvement of the public to gradually achieve the objectives by 2015, 2021 or 2027
• revise river basin management plans cyclically (every 6 years)

Transposition of the Water Framework Directive into national law

The WFD was implemented in national law in Austria with the Amendment to the Water Rights Act 2003, Federal Law Gazette I No. 112/2003, which came into force on 22 December 2003.

In 2006, the Water Condition Monitoring Ordinance WCMO (GZÜV, Federal Law Gazette I No 479/2006, last amended by the Method Alignment Ordinance Water Federal Law Gazette II No. 128/2019) implemented the WFD monitoring requirements in Austria and adapted the existing Austrian monitoring programmes accordingly. There are three types of monitoring programmes:

• Surveillance monitoring
• Operational monitoring
• Monitoring for investigative purposes

The criteria for determining the chemical and ecological status were regulated in corresponding quality target ordinances (QTO Chemistry SW, QTO Ecology SW and QTO Chemistry GW).

Public participation

Art. 14 of the WFD provides for public participation in the implementation of the Directive and the preparation of management plans.

For this reason, affected institutions and the public were already consulted on the objectives and content of the WFD during the negotiations on the EU Water Framework Directive. Public presentations on the implementation of the WFD in Austria were also held regularly in subsequent years. For example, the results of the inventory analysis, in which the pressures on surface waters and groundwater were presented and an assessment of the impact of these pressures on the water status was made, were presented both at events and on the internet (Water Information System Austria - WISA) to the public.

National water management plans must be reviewed and updated every six years.

The National Watercourse Management Plan 2015 continues the National Watercourse Management Plan 2009. Based on the available data from the current status quo analysis and the economic analysis, it shows in which sectors a reduction in water pollution can be achieved and how these targets can be gradually achieved.

Further information on the national implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive can be found here.