Working Group on Estuaries Working Group on Rivers François Kremer, DG ENV, Nature & Biodiversity Unit Brussels, 11/03/2009

The Estuaries Working Group Guidelines and recommendations as a result of the Working Group on Estuaries, which met five times since 2007. Two documents were produced: Main guidance document and technical supporting documents The guidelines are not legislative in character, they do not provide new rules but mainly complements to existing guidelines. The guidelines will be finalized by June 2009;

Estuaries Working Group - Policy background European Summit in Gothenburg in 2001, “to halt the decline of biodiversity in the EU by 2010 “Birds” Directive 79/409/EEC on the conservation of wild birds and the “Habitats” Directive 92/43/EEC The Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), 2008/56/EC EU Communication on the Integrated Maritime Policy European Ports Policy Communication

Estuaries Working Group – Parallel initiatives Ecoports, a research and development project launched in 2002 and initially co-funded by the European Commission and 12 ports and port organisations. ESPO Code of Practice on the Birds and Habitats Directives. The Paralia Nature project December 2000 The NEW! Delta project July 2004 SedNet Research project under the 5th RTD Framework Programme

Integrated planning and management, (one recommendation among others) Integrated planning and management, based on prospective and proactive approaches, can help achieving better implementation of conservation objectives and conservation measures and greater legal certainty for port development projects. Integrated planning is a way to look for synergies, complementary and win-win situations. It should help to avoid paradoxes, conflicts, and later competition for the scarcity of space

Relation between WFD and Nature Directives Recent workshops/meetings: Workshop Eurosite/Natural England Peterborough, United Kingdom. 17-18 September 2008: ‘Integration of the Water Framework Directive and Natura 2000’ Workshop Paralia Nature, Brussels. 7-8 October 2008: ‘Natura 2000, the Water Framework Directive and the EU Marine Strategy’ Existent guidance on WFD through CIS and guidance documents Existent guidance on BHD through guidance documents So far no common documents

Some frequently asqued questions on the relation between WFD and Habitats Directive What is relation between good ecological status (GES) or potential (GEP) and BHD conservation objectives ? Is there a relation between HD-art.6.3 & 6.4 and WFD-art. 4.7? What are the relations between RBMP and HD-art. 6.1 and 6.2? How are Nature directives and WFD-art.4.1.C related ? “Member States shall achieve compliance with any standards and objectives…” At which time the BHD conservation objectives as far as water aspects are concerned must be realized? 2015, with possibility of phasing to 2021 or 2027 ? And many others…

Estuaries Working Group – Follow-up Final Guidelines to be proposed to the General Biodiversity Coordination Group on 2 June 2009 and the Estuaries Working Group on 11 June 2009-03-08 Dialogue with stakeholder to be continued within regular future meetings of the estuaries working group and through the new Natura 2000 Communication Platform (to become operational later this year).

Working group on rivers EC promoting inland waterways as a green transport alternative Most rivers are part of Natura 2000 Possible conflicts with Natura 2000 conservation objectives due to infrastructure development and riverbed modification, intensified traffic on rivers …

Working group on rivers Joint DG TREN and DG ENV initiative to bring together key players from national authorities, interest groups and the Commission services, and inform on Commissions practice on inland waterways transport and the implementation of the Directives to discuss the interactions between inland waterway transport and EU environmental protection provisions for rivers across Europe To provide further assistance on the interpretation of existing guidelines (Habitat Directive, Art. 6) for rivers

Working Group on rivers Authorisation procedures for inland waterway projects are often delayed or even stopped. It is then argued that Community environmental legislation blocks infrastructure development and impairs the functionality and performance of inland navigation. Developing river transport can go hand in hand with the objectives of Habitats Directive, SEA, EIA and WF Directives through better and more integrated planning

Guidance for Inland waterways: Promote best-practice examples of successful co-operations between river engineering and nature protection bodies, and how to achieve them; Give hints on how to avoid conflicts; Describe how to best integrate environmental aspects in an early stage of the planning process, for avoiding costly and delaying procedures (no “speed-track” but efficient procedure); Facilitate contacts and foster an early co-operation of the competent authorities, by giving examples how communication and procedural problems could be solved.

Guidance for rivers and inland waterways: The working group should elaborate more specified interpretation of existing guidelines, focusing on rivers/inland waterways (on the Habitats and Birds Directives) No re-writing of existing guidelines, but guidance how to interpret them. Include WFD guidelines, SEA and EIA, in a later stage

Working group on rivers – Follow-up First meeting was held in Brussels on 19 February 2009 Local workshops with stakeholder representatives, experts and competent authorities related to specific river basins, so to speak “in situ”. The first workshop of this kind shall take place beginning June on the Elbe (Prague). Further meetings of the Working Group in 2009 and 2010 Finalisation of guidelines by the end of 2010

Thank you for your attention Estuaries Group: http://circa.europa.eu/Public/irc/env/estuary/home Rivers group: CIRCA site under construction Nature and Biodiversity Homepage: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/index_en.htm