1. Results of Questionnaire AT Experiences with „Environmental Assessment of RBMP“
Karl Schwaiger

2. Motivation AT for Questionnaire
1. rather mixed experiences made with strategic environmental assessment of RBM - plan
- at domestic as well as at
- transnational level
2. Ongoing pressure on resources in AT
3. Letter of first notice on Directive 2001/42/EC (SEA) Directive) from 8th Oct also addressing RBMP
Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May last revision of results

3. Questionnaire Idea presented 2009 (in SCG + in WD meeting in Malmö)
Final polishing of questionnaire by EC (wording as well as new
questions)
Questionnaire circulated Jan. 2010,
first presentation in SCG Feb.,
last response 18th March;
revised results provided to EC in April for SEA meeting in Madrid;
Key principle: Full confidentiality – no identification
of individual MS; feed back exclusively to Austria !
Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May last revision of results

4. Questionnaire with 9 questions
How many River Basin Management Plans have been set up in your country at the domestic / at transnational level ?
2. Have your RBMP been subject to a formal environmental assessment at the domestic / at transnational level
3. Does national legislation transposing SEA Dir. require an SEA for RBMP?
4. Does the RBMP include projects and set the framework for the future development consent of those projects?
5. Have you set up (a) separate environmental report(s) or did a co-ordinated or joint procedure take place between the SEA and RBMP?
Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May last revision of results

5. Questionnaire with 9 questions
6. How many comments did you receive as result of the strategic environmental assessment from administrations + institutions/ private persons…
7. How many comments did you receive as result of the public information and consultation of River Basin Management Plans at national level / at international level ?
8. Did the SEA lead to changes in the River Basin Managament Plan?
9. Looking back at lessons learnt / experiences made:
Do you consider the ratio of efforts made and outcome of the environmental assessment to be reasonable?
Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May last revision of results

6. Answers to questions 1 and 3
ad 1) How many RBMP?
21 MS answered with in total 153 domestic plans (with 3 out of 21 MS providing no specific answer) transnational plans (with 5 MS not answering)
Ad 3) Who has domestic legal obligations?
14 MS out of 21 MS have a domestic legal obligation to make RBMP subject to SEA
1 MS has provisions to make PoM subject to SEA, 1 MS has legal provision, but refrained from applying SEA to RBM as measures will be subject to EIA
4 MS have no specific provisions, 1 MS – no decision yet taken
Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May last revision of results

7. Answers to questions 5 – which procedure?
10 out of 21 MS reported the elaboration of a separate report and to use a coordinated procedure,
3 MS reported a joint procedure,
1 MS has used both approaches ( in different regions)
4 MS do not foresee any SEA + 1 MS has not yet decided; 2 MS have not yet started public consultation and SEA and therefore did not respond specifically
Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May last revision of results

8. Answers to questions 9 Results:
Looking back at lessons learnt / experiences made:
Do you consider the ratio of efforts made and outcome of the environmental assessment to be reasonable?
Results:
Out of 21 MS (9 MS have not yet started or do not intend to start SEA)
12 MS provided an assessment
10 MS provided a verbal justification of their ranking
10 MS provided proposals / way forward
1 efforts reasonable 2 3 4
5 efforts not reasonable
Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May last revision of results

9. Results visualised – comments recieved
RBM
SEA
Comments to RBMP dominate by far; the few comments for SEA are from institutions
Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May last revision of results

10. Results visualised – comments recieved
Basis: answers of 12 MS
Yes, useful
No, not useful
Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May last revision of results

11. Results visualised –figures underlying assessments
Country 1 2
369 4 5 7 8 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
Comments SEA * **
160
***
****
100
116 3 26
Comments RBMP
379
150
8400
1200
4500
161
120 51
315 97
547
1020
1445
212
102
ratio efforts / outcome
4-5 2 
2.8 
2,3
* SEA + RBMP not yet available
** Numbers of comments provided need further clarifications
*** No SEA foreseen or not yet decided
**** Joint procedure, therefore no separate number provided
Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May last revision of results

12. Added Value - How to proceed further ?
Conclusions
number of comments to RBMP is exceeding by far number of comments by SEA
2. comments recieved within frame of SEA are dominated by far by administration / institutions; only few comments from outside (private citizen)
3. Ratio of efforts versus results is mostly considered to be disproportionate (joint procedure seems to be better off)
4. Looking at results there is obviously a considerable potential for savings (Good Governance ?) + improvements
Added Value - How to proceed further ?
Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May last revision of results

13. My sincere thanks
to all who have supported work+ answered the questionnaire as well as for your kind attention
Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May last revision of results

14. Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May 2010 last revision of results 5.4.2010

15. Results to provide full picture
Just for info - not foreseen for presentation
Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May last revision of results

16. First results – question 1
Q 1) How many River Basin Management Plans have been set up in your country at the domestic / at transnational level ?
Answers:
21 MS with 153 domestic plans (with 3 MS providing no answer) transnational plans (with 5 MS not answering)
Observation:
if indicated separately the sub unit level as been summed up;
transnational plans may be counted more than once, as each of neighbouring countries may have addressed same plan
Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May last revision of results

17. First results – question 2
Q 2) Have your River Basin Management Plans been subject to a formal environmental assessment at the domestic / at transnational level ?
Results domestic level: out of 21 MS
15 MS have performed or will perform SEA for RBMP,
1 MS has performed SEA to PoM (RBMP + PoM being 2 separate docus),
2 MS will perform forthcoming Action Plan with its measures resp. individual projects to SEA,
2 MS see no need as measures are anyway beneficial for environment,
1 country not yet decided
Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May last revision of results

18. First results – question 3
Q 3) Does national legislation transposing the SEA Directive require an SEA for RBMP?
Results: out of 21 MS
14 MS have a legal obligation to do so for RBMP
1 MS seems to have provisions to make PoM subject to SEA
1 MS has legal provision, but refrained from applying SEA to RBM as measures will be subject to EIA
4 MS have no specific provisions
1 MS – no decision yet taken, still unresolved issue
Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May last revision of results

19. First results – question 4
Q 4) Does the RBMP include projects and set the framework for the future development consent of those projects?
Results: out of 21 MS the RBMP
this is the case in 13 MS
1 MS answered that this is not the case for the RBMP but for the PoM (being two separate documents)
In 3 MS this is not the case
3 MS did not provide a (definite)answer, 1 MS did not provide a clear answer
Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May last revision of results

20. First results – question 5
Q 5) Have you set up (a) separate environmental report(s) or did a co-ordinated or joint procedure take place between the SEA and RBMP?
Results: Out of 21 MS
10 MS reported the elaboration of a separate report and / or to use a coordinated procedure
3 MS reported a joint procedure
1 MS reported for 2 regions 1 coordinated as well + 1 joint procedure
4 MS do not foresee any SEA + 1 MS has no decision yet taken; 2 MS have not yet started public consultation and SEA and therefore did not respond specifically
Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May last revision of results

21. First results – question 6
Q 6) How many comments did you receive as result of the strategic environmental assessment from administrations + institutions/ private persons at
national level
in case of transboundary rivers at international level ?
Results: Out of 21 MS 10 MS provided feed back in quantitative or semi quantitative way (some, few, less than…), no concrete figures were forwarded by 9 MS as they have no or not yet a SEA, 2 MS have reported no separate figures for SEA and RBM
Domestic (national) level was always dominated by administrations / institutions, only 6 MS reported some feed back from priv. persons > 0, but with low numbers.
Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May last revision of results

22. First results – question 7
Q 7 )How many comments did you receive as result of the public information and consultation of River Basin Management Plans at national level / at international level ?
Results: Out of 21 MS
16 MS reported in total considerable more than returns (that is at least some orders of magnitude more than for SEA) for the domestic level
3 MS did not report any figures as their public consultation has not yet started
2 MS reported for the domestic as well as as for the trans-national level an order of magnitude (e.g. several hundreds…) either per plan or per region
Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May last revision of results

23. First results – question 8
Q 8) Did the SEA lead to changes in the River Basin Managament Plan?
Results: out of 21 MS who reported back
12 MS have provided resilient answers
7 MS out of 11 MS reported “no change”, 4 reported “yes, changes”
1 MS answered partly no (1RBMP) partly yes (3 RBMP)
=> Are efforts for SEA proportionate ?
9 MS have not started or do not foresee SEA or have not yet decided so this question does not apply to them
Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May last revision of results

24. End of Annexe to Presentation
Karl Schwaiger WD meeting Segovia 27th + 28th May last revision of results