COMMISSION DECISION
of 20 September 2013
establishing, pursuant to Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, the values of the Member State monitoring system classifications as a result of the intercalibration exercise and repealing Decision 2008/915/EC
(notified under document C(2013) 5915)
(Text with EEA relevance)
(2013/480/EU)
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy (1), and in particular Section 1.4.1(ix) of Annex V thereof,
Whereas:
(1)
Article 4(1)(a)(ii) of Directive 2000/60/EC requires the Member States to protect, enhance and restore all bodies of surface water with the aim of achieving good surface water status at the latest 15 years after the date of entry into force of the Directive, subject to certain derogations in accordance with the provisions laid down in Annex V thereto. Article 4(1)(a)(iii) of Directive 2000/60/EC requires the Member States to protect and enhance all artificial and heavily modified bodies of water, with the aim of achieving good ecological potential and good surface water chemical status at the latest 15 years from the date of entry into force of the Directive, subject to certain derogations, in accordance with the provisions laid down in Annex V thereto. In accordance with Section 1.4.1(i) of Annex V to Directive 2000/60/EC the references to ecological status should be construed as references to ecological potential as regards artificial and heavily modified water bodies.
(2)
The intercalibration exercise envisages a harmonised approach to define one of the main environmental objectives of Directive 2000/60/EC, namely good ecological status.
(3)
Section 1.4.1 of Annex V to Directive 2000/60/EC provides a process to ensure the comparability between the biological monitoring results of Member States as a central part of the ecological status classification. This requires the Member States’ biological monitoring results and their monitoring system classifications to be compared through an intercalibration network comprised of monitoring sites in each Member State and in each ecoregion of the Union. Directive 2000/60/EC requires the Member States to collect, as appropriate, the necessary information for the sites included in the intercalibration network, in order to enable the assessment of the consistency of the national monitoring system classifications with the normative definitions of Section 1.2 of Annex V to Directive 2000/60/EC and the comparability of the results of monitoring system classifications between the Member States.
(4)
In order to carry out the intercalibration exercise Member States are organised in Geographical Intercalibration Groups, consisting of Member States sharing particular surface water body types, as defined in Section 2 of the Annex to Commission Decision 2005/646/EC of 17 August 2005 on the establishment of a register of sites to form the intercalibration network in accordance with Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (2).
(5)
Section 1.4.1 of Annex V to Directive 2000/60/EC specifies that the intercalibration exercise is to be carried out at biological element level, comparing the classification results of the national monitoring system for each biological element and for each common surface water body type among Member States in the same Geographical Intercalibration Group, and assessing the consistency of the results with the normative definitions set out in Section 1.2 of Annex V to Directive 2000/60/EC.
(6)
The Commission has facilitated two phases of the intercalibration exercise through the Institute of Environment and Sustainability of the Joint Research Centre.
(7)
Under the Water Framework Directive Common Implementation Strategy three Guidance Documents (No 6 (3) and 14 (two versions) (4)) were prepared to facilitate the intercalibration process. They provided an overview of the key principles of the intercalibration process and the options for carrying out the exercise including timescales and reporting requirements.
(8)
By 2007 the Commission had received intercalibration results for a number of biological quality elements. They were included in Commission Decision 2008/915/EC of 30 October 2008 establishing, pursuant to Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, the values of the Member State monitoring system classifications as a result of the intercalibration exercise (5), which sets out the values of the boundaries between classes that Member States should use in their national monitoring system classifications. The results of the first phase of the intercalibration exercise were incomplete, in so far as not all biological quality elements were covered. It was necessary however to adopt the available results of the intercalibration exercise to inform the development of the first river basin management plans and programmes of measures in accordance with Articles 11 and 13 of Directive 2000/60/EC.
(9)
The results of this first phase of the intercalibration exercise were adopted in Decision 2008/915/EC. Those results were included on a provisional basis with an understanding that further results would be subject to a new Decision when the relevant information in accordance with Section 1.4.1 of Annex V to Directive 2000/60/EC would have been provided by the Member States.
(10)
In order to close the gaps and improve the comparability of the intercalibration results in time for the second river basin management plans due in 2015, the Commission initiated a second phase of the intercalibration exercise.
(11)
Annex I to this Decision sets out the results of the intercalibration exercise for which intercalibration is successfully achieved, within the limits of what is technically feasible at this point in time.
(12)
Annex II to this Decision sets out the results of the intercalibration exercise for which intercalibration is partially achieved. The completion of all the necessary steps in the intercalibration exercise should be carried out in order for the results to be included in a new Decision. Accordingly, those results are provisional.
(13)
Member States should complete the intercalibration exercise by 22 December 2016 to allow the Commission to move the results contained in Annexes I and II of this Decision to a sole Annex of a new Decision. This will allow for these results to be used in the third river basin planning cycle.
(14)
The completion of all the necessary steps in the intercalibration exercise should also be carried out by 22 December 2016 for those Geographical Intercalibration Groups and biological quality elements where there are as yet no intercalibration results for inclusion in this Decision. This will also allow for these results to be included in a new Decision and to be used in the third river basin planning cycle.
(15)
While Directive 2000/60/EC requires that intercalibration is to be carried out at biological quality element level, single parameters (e.g. chlorophyll -a concentration, or depth limits of macroalgae and angiosperms) are in some cases considered to be representative for a full biological quality element. In such cases, the results of the intercalibration exercise are set out in Annex I.
(16)
There are cases where Member States have developed independent methods covering only a part of a biological quality element (e.g. independent method for macrophytes and phytobenthos for the quality element ‘macrophytes and phytobenthos’). In cases where intercalibration for such sub- biological quality elements has been successfully completed the results of the intercalibration exercise are included in the Annexes and identified as a sub biological quality element.
(17)
The results of the intercalibration exercise should refer to the ecological status of water bodies. If water bodies corresponding to the intercalibrated types are designated as heavily modified water bodies in accordance with Article 4(3) of Directive 2000/60/EC, the results presented in Annex I and II to this Decision could be used to derive their good ecological potential, taking into account their physical modifications and their associated water use in accordance with the normative definitions in Section 1.2.5 of Annex V to Directive 2000/60/EC.
(18)
Member States should apply the results of the intercalibration exercise to their national classification systems in order to set the boundaries between high and good status and between good and moderate status for all their national types.
(19)
The information that is made available through the establishment of the monitoring programmes provided for in Article 8 of Directive 2000/60/EC and the review and update of the characteristics of river basin districts provided for in Article 5 of Directive 2000/60/EC could bring new evidence that may lead to the adaptation to scientific and technical progress of the Member States’ monitoring and classification systems and eventually to a review of the results of the intercalibration exercise in order to improve their quality.
(20)
Decision 2008/915/EC should therefore be repealed and replaced accordingly.
(21)
The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee referred to in Article 21(1) of Directive 2000/60/EC,
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:
Article 1
1. For the purposes of section 1.4.1(iii) of Annex V to Directive 2000/60/EC, Member States shall use in their monitoring systems classification the values of the boundaries between classes that are set out in Annex I and II to this Decision.
2. Member States shall complete all the necessary steps in the intercalibration exercise for the results included in Annex II to this Decision by 22 December 2016.
Article 2
Decision 2008/915/EC is repealed.
Article 3
This Decision is addressed to the Member States.
Done at Brussels, 20 September 2013.