Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council in accordance with article 18.3 of the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC on programmes for monitoring of water status {SEC(2009)415}
Date: 2009-04-01
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU environmental policy, EU programme, degree of pollution, groundwater, quality of the environment

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COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 1.4.2009 
COM(2009) 156 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

in accordance with article 18.3 of the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC on 
programmes for monitoring of water status  

{SEC(2009)415} 

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REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

in accordance with article 18.3 of the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC on 
programmes for monitoring of water status  

INTRODUCTION 

1. 
The  EU  Water  Framework  Directive  (WFD)1,  adopted  in  2000,  laid  the  foundation  for  a 
modern,  holistic  and  ambitious  water  policy  for  the  European  Union  and  defined  a  clear 
implementation  calendar  to  achieve  its  objectives,  with  intermediate  deadlines  for  the 
achievement of specific tasks, among them:  

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

December  2003:  transposition  of  the  WFD  into  national  law  (article  24), 
identification  of  river  basin  districts  and  set  up  of  administrative  arrangements 
(article 3) 

December 2004: pressure and impact analysis of river basin districts, and economic 
analysis of water uses (article 5) 

December 2006: establishment of the monitoring programmes for the assessment of 
water status (article 8) 

December  2008:  publication  of  the  draft  river  basin  management  plans  for 
consultation (article 14) 

December 2009: adoption of the river basin management plans (article 13) 

December 2012: programme of measures operational at the latest (article 11) 

December 2015: achievement of good status for surface and groundwater (article 4) 
and first update of the river basin management plan 

The  Communication  from  the  Commission  to  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council 
“Towards  sustainable  water  management  in  the  European  Union  -  First  stage  in  the 
implementation of the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC” and the accompanying Staff 
Working  Document2  gave,  in  March  2007,  an  overview  of  the  aims  of  the  Directive  and 
summarised the results of the implementation of the first two steps identified above. 
This Report and the accompanying Commission Staff Working Document3 responds to WFD 
Article  18(3)  which  requires  the  Commission  to  publish  a  report  on  the  progress  of 
implementation of the WFD related to Article 8 on monitoring of water status. This report is 
based on the information submitted by Member States in accordance with WFD article 15(2), 
due on 22 March 2007. 

2. 

MONITORING REQUIREMENTS OF THE WATER FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE 

The  environmental  objectives  laid  down  in  Article  4(1)  WFD  require  Member  States  to 
prevent  deterioration  of  the  status  of  all  bodies  of  surface  water  and  groundwater  and  to 
achieve good status as a rule by 2015. In addition, pollution from priority substances has to 

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Directive 2000/60/EC, OJ L327 of 22.12.2000, as amended 
COM(1007)128 final and the accompanying documents SEC(2007) 362 
SEC(2009) 415 

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progressively  be  reduced,  emissions  of  hazardous  substances  shall  be  ceased  or  phased  out, 
and  any  significant  upward  trend  in  pollution  in  groundwater  has  also  to  be  reversed  by 
appropriate measures. 

In  accordance  with  Article  8(1)  WFD  Member  States  have  to  establish  monitoring 
programmes for the assessment of the status of surface water and of groundwater in order to 
establish  a  coherent  and  comprehensive  overview  of  water  status  within  each  river  basin 
district.  These  requirements  include  monitoring  of  protected  areas  as  far  as  the  status  of 
surface  water  or  groundwater  is  concerned.  Based  on  Article  8(2)  WFD  the  monitoring 
programmes were to be operational by 22 December 2006. The results of monitoring will play 
a key role in determining whether the water bodies are in good status and what measures need 
to be included in the river basin management plans in order to reach good status as a rule by 
2015. Precise and reliable monitoring results are therefore a prerequisite for sound planning of 
investments in the programme of measures. 

This report and its accompanying Commission Staff Working Document present the results of 
the analysis of the information on WFD monitoring programmes received from the Member 
States. 

3. 

METHODOLOGY FOR THE COMPLIANCE CHECK 

The  Commission  has  carried  out  an  analysis  of  the  information  received  with  the  help  of  a 
number of compliance indicators. The methodological approach and the detailed results of the 
analysis are described in the accompanying Commission Staff Working Document.  

4. 

FACTS AND FIGURES ON MEMBER STATES' MONITORING PROGRAMMES 

The monitoring reports of the Member States show that there are around 57,000 monitoring 
stations  established  for  WFD  monitoring  on  surface  waters  and  around  51,000  for 
groundwater. On surface waters, by far the largest number of monitoring stations is located on 
rivers, followed by equally high numbers for lakes and coastal waters.  
For  surface  waters,  more  than  26,000  monitoring  stations  serve  the  purpose  of  surveillance 
monitoring  and  more  than  41,000  for  operational  monitoring  of  ecological  and/or  chemical 
status.  For  groundwater,  there  are  about  31,000  stations  for  surveillance  monitoring  of 
chemical  status,  about  20,000  stations  for  operational  monitoring,  as  well  as  almost  30,000 
monitoring stations for groundwater level monitoring.  
A view across EU27 shows the highest number of monitoring stations in the United Kingdom 
(12,807  stations),  Italy  (8,311  stations),  Germany  (6,688  stations)  and  Denmark  (6,085 
stations).  When  standardising  these  numbers  per  1,000  km²  area,  the  United  Kingdom  (52 
stations)  and  Ireland  (44  stations)  show  by  far  the  highest  density  of  monitoring  stations, 
whereas  the  Nordic  countries  such  as  Finland  (less  than  1  station)  and  Sweden  (5  stations) 
show  very  low  numbers.  The  numbers  vary  largely  between  Member  States.  This  is  in  part 
related to differences in natural characteristics, in population densities, in water uses as well 
as the exerted pressures, but different concepts in the design of the monitoring programmes, 
e.g.  in  the  selection  of  the  monitoring  stations  have  influenced  these  numbers  as  well.  The 
technical  assessment  carried  out  by  the  Commission  has  identified  a  number  of  gaps  and 
deficiencies in the design of the monitoring programmes which are summarised below. 

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5. 

CONCLUSIONS 

5.1. 

Reporting 

All  Member  States  have  reported  on  the  establishment  of  monitoring  programmes  in 
accordance  with  Article  8  and  Annex  V  WFD, with  the  exception  of  Greece  which  has  not 
reported  and  Malta,  which  has  not  reported  on  surface  water  monitoring  programmes.  In 
addition, gaps were detected in individual river basin districts or individual water categories.  

For the first time ever, Member States have reported electronically through WISE, the Water 
Information  System  for  Europe4.  The  electronic  submission  of  reports  through  WISE  has 
proven to be successful with a total of 24 Member States having reported through this channel 
to date. WISE provides for a more effective and streamlined reporting and is already bringing 
benefits in terms of avoiding double reporting of monitoring stations. 

However, there are still some improvements needed to ensure that the reports submitted are 
clear and comprehensive. Clear and comprehensive reporting is a pre-requisite to enable the 
Commission to carry out a proper analysis of the implementation. Good practice examples of 
clear  reporting  include  the  reports  of  Austria,  the  Czech  Republic,  Hungary  and  the 
Netherlands. 

5.2.  Monitoring 

In  general  terms,  there  is  a  good  monitoring  effort  across  the  European  Union.  More  than 
107,000 monitoring stations were reported for monitoring of surface water and groundwater 
under  the  Water  Framework  Directive.  On  surface  waters,  by  far  the  largest  number  of 
monitoring stations is located on rivers (75%), followed by lakes (13%), coastal waters (10%) 
and transitional waters (2%). 

In general, it appears that the provisions of Annex V to the WFD and the existing guidance 
documents on monitoring of surface water and groundwater have been applied, although there 
is  room  for  improvement  in  some  Member  States  to  improve  the  understanding  and 
application of the basic concepts of surveillance, operational and investigative monitoring.  

The  reports  from  Austria,  Czech  Republic  and  Hungary  can  be  cited  as  examples  of  good 
practice, showing  a clear  approach to the development  of  WFD  monitoring programmes. In 
addition,  the  reports  from  Ireland  and  the  United  Kingdom  show  a  significant  monitoring 
effort  to  ensure  confidence  in  the  monitoring  results.  Finally,  the  efforts  of  the  countries 
joining  the  EU  2007  should  also  be  acknowledged.  Whilst  the  development  of  methods  to 
assess ecological status is far from being completed in Bulgaria and Romania, the monitoring 
programmes  have  been  established  in  accordance  with  the  concepts  of  the  WFD  and, 
particularly in Romania, provide for comprehensive monitoring. 

One  of  the  key  elements  of  the  WFD  is  that  it  sets  a  framework  to  take  into  account  all 
pressures and impacts in the aquatic environment and integrates the requirements of other key 
existing  EU  water  legislation  as  minimum  basic  measures.  The  WFD  requires  specific 
monitoring  of  protected  areas,  in  particular  in  water  bodies  used  for  the  abstraction  of 
drinking water and in water dependent habitat and species protection areas. However, in many 
cases these specific requirements have not been clearly incorporated into the WFD monitoring 
programmes.  The  programmes  adopted  in  Ireland  can  be  cited  as  a  positive  example  of  an 
approach to meet these requirements through specific monitoring sub-nets. The integration of 
monitoring  requirements  from  other  Directives  into  the  monitoring  programmes  under  the 

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See http://water.europa.eu/ 

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WFD  should  bring  benefits  for  planning  and  allocating  resources  for  monitoring  more 
efficiently.  

Despite  international  coordination  mechanisms  being  in  place  in  many  international  river 
basin districts only a few Member States such as Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Romania 
and United Kingdom have reported using them in establishing their monitoring programmes. 
In  order  to  ensure  a  targeted  and  sound  planning  of  the  programme  of  measures  in 
international river basin districts, Member States need to coordinate monitoring programmes 
within  the  river  basin  district  in  order  to  provide  an  integrated  assessment  of  the  existing 
pressures and impacts. 

The main aim of monitoring is to assess the status of water with the assessment of ecological 
status  of  surface  waters  being  of  central  importance.  As  has  already  been  seen  in  the 
intercalibration  exercise5,  there  remain  quite  a  number  of  gaps  in  the  development  of 
biological  assessment  methods  for  determining  ecological  status.  The  analysis  of  the 
information provided on monitoring programmes shows that there are still many river basin 
districts where the necessary assessment methods for biological quality elements are not yet in 
place. This is particularly true in the countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007. It is very 
important  that  Member  States  conclude  the  development  of  their  national  methods  and 
continue the work on intercalibration to finalise the exercise by 2011 as agreed by the Water 
Framework  Directive  Committee  (Intercalibration  Work  Programme  2008-2011).  There  are 
several research programmes on-going which are expected to bring valuable information for 
the completion of the intercalibration exercise, one of the main ones being WISER6.  

Little  information  was  delivered  on  the  levels  of  confidence  and  precision  of  the  overall 
monitoring programmes and in particular of the assessment methods for ecological status. It is 
therefore difficult to assess whether the monitoring programmes will deliver a sufficient level 
of  confidence  and  precision  for  the  purpose  of  providing  a  coherent  and  comprehensive 
overview  of  the  status  of  water  bodies  across  the  river  basin  districts  and  to  inform  the 
decision making in relation to the programme of measures. The river basin management plans 
due at the end of 2009 will provide the whole picture of the river basin districts in terms of 
pressures,  impacts,  status  assessment  and  measures  and  this  will  enable  the  Commission  to 
assess comprehensively the results delivered by the monitoring programmes. 

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See  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 
intercalibration  exercise,  available  at  http://eur-
system  classifications  as  a  result  of 
lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:332:0020:0044:EN:PDF 
http://www.wiser.eu 

the 

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