Orto Botanico, Rome, 24th March, 2003 Horizontal Guidance on Wetlands SCG Comments on V 2.0 Orto Botanico, Rome, 24th March, 2003

V 2.0 disseminated to SCG for comments & suggestions V 2.1 disseminated amongst group members

Comments from: Finland Denmark Netherlands Slovakia WWF

Some comments from SCG on V 2 Some comments from SCG on V 2.1 from UK, Austria, to be presented today

The ‘Comments Carousel’

Comments on V 2.0 put into a table to show main comments & actions

Structure of comments table Page/ section Subject or item Comments from MS/ organisation from Response and/or actions Issue should be discussed by GM 1.3 Structure of Guidance This text is unnecessary and may be omitted FIN Yes - this section needs to undergo some revision, but at this stage in the process a discussion should take place between GM’s regarding deletion. We welcome proposal for replacement text   ü   

ü Wetlands in the WFD FIN Page/ section Subject or item Comments from MS/ organisation from Response and/or Actions Issue should be discussed by GM 2.1 What is a wetland? Text & interpretation don’t coincide with legal requirements of WFD. Delete section if intention is to give guidelines for the implementation of the Directives regulations. HGWB sufficient in this respect. FIN Yes – we agree this section has cross-cutting issues with HGWB. Directive i.e. minimum requirements to be complied with should be cited. Document seeks to clarify which are the minimum requirements needed by Directive & which are the options for MS to further improve on this.   ü   

ü DK Protected Areas Comments from MS/ organisation from Sec. 4 Page/ section Subject or item Comments from MS/ organisation from Response and/or actions Issue should be discussed by GM Sec. 4 Protected Areas It is clear from article 6 that only those PAs designated under specific community legislation should be included in register. Irrespective of the legal interpretation of A. 6 and Annex IV, the question is beyond the scope of the guidance. Delete section 4 from the document DK Yes – we agree…that the issue concerning PA designation should be left out of the guidance…..PAs are also included in the common text for wetlands giving us mandate to include it in the guidance.   ü   

Wetlands and programme of measures Page/ section Subject or item Comments from MS/ organisation from Response and/or actions Issue should be discussed by GM 5.3 Cost recovery Delete whole text – it does not belong here FIN We welcome more detailed comments and suggestions for replacement text.   ü   

GM’s Review Comments and actions

Comments integrated into 2.1 Distributed as new Version 3.0