Commission report on Art. 8 WFD Monitoring programmes WFD CIS WG C on Groundwater Prague, 28 April 2009 Balázs Horváth European Commission, DG Environment

Legal basis Article 18.3 of the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC): 3. The Commission shall also publish a report on progress in implementation based on the summary reports that Member States submit under Article 15(2), and submit it to the European Parliament and the Member States…

Summarize the information received by MS COM aim with the report Summarize the information received by MS Draw a European wide picture of the status of monitoring Come to conclusions, analyse strengths and weaknesses of MS Assist the correct implementation of WFD

Structure of the report Commission Report: 6 pages (all languages) Commission Staff Working Document (ca. 50 pages, EN only) Annexes (ca. 180 pages, EN only) Questionnaire used for compliance checking MS annex with factual information and the results of the assessment

Table of contents CSWD 1. Introduction 2. Monitoring Requirements of the WFD 3. Methodology for the Compliance Check Results of the Assessment of Member States' Monitoring Programmes 4.1. Communication and Completeness of the Reports 4.2 Overview of Monitoring Networks in the European Union 4.3 Monitoring Programmes on Surface Waters 4.4. Monitoring Programmes on Groundwater Results in International River Basin Districts Conclusions 6.1 Reporting 6.2 Monitoring Annex 1: Questionnaire for Compliance Checking of Monitoring Reports Annex 2: Information on the Monitoring Programmes of the Member States

4.1 Communication To date, 26 Member States have reported. 24 Member States have reported through WISE. Date of reporting of the Member States Reporting deadline: 22 March 2007

4.2 Overview of EU27 Groundwater Chemical status surveillance 31.019 Number of monitoring stations Chemical status surveillance 31.019 operational 19.687 Quantitative status 28.967 Total 51.446 - dense spread in central Europe and significantly fewer monitoring stations in the Northern countries. - trend to have denser networks in those areas, in which groundwater is used for drinking water or other purposes.

4.4 Groundwater monitoring Total number of monitoring stations for quantitative and for chemical groundwater monitoring significant differences across Member States in the approach of establishing groundwater monitoring.

4.4 Groundwater monitoring Number of groundwater monitoring stations per 1000 km² of Member State land area for quantitative and chemical monitoring density of the network depends on the size of the country and the intensity of groundwater use and on the types of uses

4.4 Groundwater monitoring Percentage of groundwater bodies included in quantitative monitoring the percentage depends significantly on the delineation of groundwater bodies as some countries have performed a very detailed delineation resulting in a large number of groundwater bodies

4.4 Groundwater monitoring Number and percentage of groundwater bodies with 0, 1, 2-5, 6-10, and 11 and more monitoring sites for quantitative monitoring (data from 23 Member States) Almost 60% of the groundwater bodies do not have quantitative monitoring.

4.4 Groundwater monitoring Percentage of groundwater bodies included in chemical surveillance monitoring percentages are influenced by the delineation of groundwater bodies and some countries used a more targeted approach than others

4.4 Groundwater monitoring Number of water bodies with operational monitoring in relation to the number of water bodies at risk of reaching the environmental objectives, as reported by the Member State under Article 5 WFD. "Number GWB" are the number of water bodies included in operational monitoring. Some of the MS has not established operational monitoring but has an extended groundwater chemical surveillance monitoring network

Annex 2: MS Information Outline Information supplied Facts and figures Surface Water Monitoring Programmes Design of Monitoring Programmes Development of Biological Assessment Methods Selection of quality elements and frequency of monitoring Groundwater Monitoring Programmes Further information Summary of technical assessment: strengths and weaknesses

Annex 2: MS Information Example INFORMATION SUPPLIED Reporting through WISE; completeness of reporting (e.g. for all river basin districts, for all water categories); additionals reports, web links Example

Annex 2: MS Information Example

Annex 2: MS Information Example

6. Conclusions 1 Reporting Gaps remain in certain RBDs and in certain water categories Improvements needed on quality of reporting. Some make good use of the agreed format, others provided very general information, relied heavily on secondary information or provided inactive web links The desired flexibility in reporting formats has lead to a complicated reporting structure. This has made the systematic assessment quite difficult There is need to strike a better balance between flexibility and complexity in the reporting schemas

6. Conclusions 2 Monitoring Overall, there is a good monitoring effort across EU, >107.000 stations for surface water and groundwater In general, the provisions of Art. 8 and Annex V have been applied, but there is room for improvement in some MS in particular as regards the application of the concepts of surveillance, operational and investigative monitoring Extensive use of grouping of water bodies for monitoring. Monitoring should not be seen just as an expensive burden but rather as an important tool for cost-effectiveness in river basin management. The reporting of river basin management plans will allow the Commission to assess in a more comprehensive way the results delivered by the monitoring programmes

6. Conclusions 3 Groundwater The information reported by the Member States was quite general in many cases and it relied heavily on secondary reports. The majority of Member States have updated their existing monitoring programmes for groundwater to take into account the objectives of WFD. Several of them have, however, indicated that this process had not been completed. In all but one Member States the reporting was centralised, and a harmonised approach seems to have been applied across the different river basin districts.

Web access to the report http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/ water-framework/implrep2007/index_en.htm

…Guidance document on groundwater status and trend assessment: New web access to… …Guidance document on groundwater status and trend assessment: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/ water-framework/groundwater/scienc_tec/cis/pdf/ gw_trend_assessment.pdf …19 language versions of brochure on groundwater protection: water-framework/groundwater.html