1. WG A Ecological Status Progress report April-October 2009

2. Issues ECOSTAT meeting 1-2 October, Brussels
Draft ECOSTAT mandate
( separate presentation agenda item 8b)
Intercalibration
Update of the guidance ( separate presenation)
Progress of ongoing intercalibration work

3. Activity 1 – Intercalibration: Progress of ongoing work
Work programme in place; objectives:
to coordinate and carry out the technical work of the WFD intercalibration exercise for the water categories, geographical regions and biological quality elements that are not included in the current Commission Decision
to address more generic open issues including further harmonization of approaches for setting reference conditions
to report the results to the SCG and the WFD Article 21 Committee
Ongoing work is following the updated (draft)guidance on the IC process

4. Activity 1 – Intercalibration: Progress of ongoing work
General timetable

5. Activity 1 – Intercalibration: Progress of ongoing work
Reference conditions setting
first analysis of technical reports of first IC round: lack of consistency in how criteria for setting RC have been applied
analysis is initially focusing on rivers, but will also include other water categories
data has been requested from MS to substantiate this analysis
recommendations for better consistency RC setting expected spring 2009  Annex to new guidance
alternative benchmarks

6. Activity 1 – Intercalibration: Progress of ongoing work
Rivers
‘Milestone 1’ reports from all IC groups on ECOSTAT CIRCA
Work ongoing for BQEs that were not completed in first round (macrophytes, fish)
Large river group started (coordinated by Germany)
Fish: common dataset completed – but some MS are missing
 it will be difficult for those MS to intercalibrate their methods in the current timetable!

8. Activity 1 – Intercalibration: Progress of ongoing work
Lakes
‘Milestone 1’ reports from all IC groups on ECOSTAT CIRCA
18 IC groups are now active
focus on data collection and analysing MS methods
NO GIG acidification group expected to finalise early 2010
Problems:
Difficult for MS to cover all groups - lack of participation of some MS
National methods are still not finalised in many cases
Delay in the work of the EC GIG

9. Activity 1 – Intercalibration: Progress of ongoing work
Coastal/Transitional waters
‘Milestone 1’ reports from all IC groups on ECOSTAT CIRCA
New coordinator at JRC: Wendy Bonne
Cross-GIG coastal meeting planned for January 2010
Most groups are active and are making good progress
Problems:
- Some problems with coordination, MS participation, – see progress report
Most methods are still under development
Reference conditions comparability is problematic and this is being investigated now
Difficulties in common dataset development are still an obstacle for more efficient work

10. The SCG is invited to take note of state of play of the current ECOSTAT activities.