- Client: DG Environment (ENV) (European Commission)
- Implementation period: January, 2022 - January, 2025 (Ongoing)
- Geographic coverage: Europe, European Union
- Theme: Environment
- Topic: Water
- Experts: Graeme Nicholls, Maha Cziesielski
Are Members States protecting and enhancing their waters?
Our water bodies offer a plethora of benefits to society: groundwaters provide clean drinking water; rivers facilitate the transportation of consumer goods and lakes allow us to partake in a range of recreational activities. For society to continue accessing these benefits requires the status of these water bodies to be preserved. This is the primary aim of the Water Framework Directive (WFD)- the cornerstone of EU water policy, requiring Member States to achieve good chemical, ecological and quantitative status in all water bodies.
Every six years, Member States are required to submit River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) which outline key actions to be undertaken to achieve WFD objectives within defined areas (i.e. river basin districts). This 2022-2027 reporting cycle of the WFD is a particularly important period, as the WFD sets a deadline for achieving objectives by 2027. As such, any failures identified could result in legal proceedings against Member States.
Trinomics, along with a large team of partner organisations, will be conducting comprehensive compliance analyses of Member States’ RBMP reporting to support the Commission in understanding:
1) Progress made compared to the previous reporting cycle;
2) Distance to the 2027 objective;
3) How synergies and trade-offs between water management and sectoral policies have been addressed;
4) Which actions are needed in priority areas to rectify any shortcomings until 2027.
