Water Framework Directive.
Date: 2011-05-04
Institutions: Directorate-General for Environment
Subjects: EC Directive, EU environmental policy, environmental law, water management, water protection

The WFD is a framework for EU water 
policy and is complemented by other 
legislation regulating speciﬁ c aspects of 
water use:

•   The Groundwater Directive (2006)
•    The Environmental Quality 
Standards Directive (2008) 

•    Two Commission Decisions (2005 
and 2008), on ecological status, 
established a register of almost 1 500 
sites included in an intercalibration 
exercise to allow for comparison of 
diﬀ erent countries’ standards, and 
published the results. 

Previous and related legislation includes: 

•   The Urban Wastewater Directive (1991) 
•  The Nitrates Directive (1991) 
•   The new Bathing Water Directive 

(2006) 

• The Drinking Water Directive (1998) 

More recent related legislation 
expanding the scope of integrated water 
management:

•  The Floods Directive (2007)
•   The Marine Strategy Framework 

Directive  (2008)

•   Decisions about land-use and development are inﬂ uenced by the availability of water 

resources and facilities for wastewater disposal.

•   Energy generation uses water for cooling and other purposes. Much of it is returned to 

water courses after use.

•   Industry uses water for the manufacturing processes, while many other sectors of the 

economy, such as tourism, impact on water resources.

•   Water is indispensable for healthy ecosystems, which themselves underpin our quality 
of life. It is not only a provisioning service – a basic material – but also plays a part in the 
regulating services that govern climate and weather and keep our planet functioning. For 
example, wetlands provide services such as water puriﬁ cation and carbon absorption, 
which in economic terms are worth billions of euro. 

Therefore, good water management has to be integrated into all these areas, while the WFD 
takes account of all aspects of water use and consumption. 

Fact 7:  A changing environment creates 

challenges for the future, including 
climate change, ﬂ oods and drought

Since 2000, new factors, such as accelerating climate change and the economic crisis, have 
come into play. In the coming years, climate change will pose a major challenge for water 
management across the EU. It is likely to bring:  

•   Lower rainfall and higher summer temperatures in the south, putting stress on scarce 
resources. The Commission’s 2007 Communication on Addressing the challenge of 
water scarcity and droughts ﬁ nds that implementing the WFD will be crucial. 

•   More rain and a higher ﬂ ood risk in the north. Floods are already becoming increasingly 
frequent:  since  1990,  259  major  river  ﬂ oods  have  been  reported,  165  of  them  since 
2000. The 2007 Floods Directive adopts a new, proactive approach, requiring Member 
States to prepare preliminary ﬂ ood risk assessments for all river basin districts by 2011, 
followed up in 2013 by ﬂ ood hazard maps. By 2015, Member States should have ﬂ ood 
risk management plans, ready to link into the next cycle of RBMPs (2016-2021). 

In the  view of this, public involvement will be crucial  to meet the goals of the WFD as 
well  as the Floods Directive. Yet large numbers of Europeans are still unaware of their right 
to have a say on the future of water. It is important to communicate that every eﬀ ort makes 
a diﬀ erence. Consultations on the next cycle of river basin management plan preparation 
together with consultations on the preparation of ﬂ ood risk management plans should start 
by the end of 2012.

Useful resources: 

Commission homepage on EU water policies and links to river basin management plans: 
http://water.europa.eu/policy

Water notes: 
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/participation/notes_en.htm 

WFD implementation reports 2007 and 2009:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/water-framework/implrep2007/index_en.htm

Maps and graphs: 
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/water-framework/facts_ﬁ gures/index_en.htm

Plunge into the debate – consultations and local RBMPs: 
http://water.europa.eu/participate

Common Implementation Strategy:  
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/water-framework/objectives/implementation_
en.htm

CIRCA: 
http://circa.europa.eu/Public/irc/env/wfd/library?l=/&vm=detailed&sb=Title

WISE: Water Information System in Europe: 
http://water.europa.eu

European Environment Agency – water: 
www.eea.europa.eu/themes/water 

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EN

WATER

Water Framework 
Directive

The EU Water Framework Directive

In 2000, the European Union took a groundbreaking step when it adopted the Water 
Framework Directive (WFD). It introduces a new legislative approach to managing 
and protecting water, based not on national or political boundaries but on natural 
geographical and hydrological formations: river basins. It also requires coordination of 
diﬀ erent EU policies, and sets out a precise timetable for action, with 2015 as the target 
date for getting all European waters into good condition. 

Water supports life. It is a crucial resource for humanity, generating and 
sustaining economic growth and prosperity. It is also at the core of natural 
ecosystems and climate regulation.

Europe’s water is under pressure. Recent ﬁ gures show that 20% of surface 
water is at serious risk from pollution; 60% of European cities over-exploit 
their groundwater resources; 50% of wetlands are endangered. Demand 
for water is growing all the time.

Three-quarters of Europeans get their supply from groundwater, locked 
in the Earth.

Nearly half the EU population lives in ‘water-stressed’ countries, where the 
abstraction of water from freshwater sources is too high. 

River  basin  management  plans  are  the  key  tools  for  implementing  the 
WFD. They are drawn up after extensive public consultation, and are valid 
for a six-year period.

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ENV-09-018_factsheet-water-framework-directive.indd   1-2

29/11/10   09:17

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fact 1:  Europe’s water is under 

pressure

through  a  coordinated  strategy  involving  all  the  interested  parties  in 
decision-making. The river basin approach is the best way to manage 
water. This is the thinking behind the Water Framework Directive.

Everyone needs water – and not just for drinking. We depend on our 
rivers, lakes, coastal and marine waters, as well as groundwaters, in many 
ways.  Society  uses  water  to  generate  and  sustain  economic  growth 
and prosperity, through activities such as farming, commercial ﬁ shing, 
energy production, manufacturing, transport and tourism. Water is also 
in  demand  for  recreational  activities,  and  forms  a  key  element  in  the 
beauty of natural landscapes.

Water  is  at  the  core  of  natural  ecosystems,  and  climate  regulation. 
But the pattern of supply is particularly vulnerable to climate change. 
Scientists  warn  of  increased  risk  of  both  droughts  and  ﬂ oods  in  the 
coming  decades.  Demand  for  water  is  growing  everywhere  –  in  the 
house  and  garden,  for  industry,  agriculture  and  irrigation,  leisure  and 
tourism – putting a strain on available supplies. 

At  the  same  time,  threats  to  water  quality  come  from  pollution  and 
physical  changes  to  water  courses,  such  as  new  dams.  Damage 
is  caused  by  households,  industry  and  agriculture,  through  urban 
developments,  ﬂ ood  defences,  power  generation,  use  of  fertilisers 
and  pesticides,  navigation,  recreation,  wastewater  discharge,  coastal 
defences, freshwater ﬁ shing, mining and forestry. 

Although humanity has long realised its dependence on water, we in 
Europe are now also becoming more and more aware that the supply 
is not inﬁ nite, and that we need to value it accordingly. Water must be 
managed  and  protected.  It  is  not  merely  a  consumer  product,  but  a 
precious natural resource, vital to future generations as well as our own. 
Without water, no life can survive.

Fact 2:  EU action is necessary because 
river basins and pollution 
cross borders. The river basin 
approach is the best way to 
manage water  

Member States have had to draw up river basin management plans 
(RBMPs) to safeguard each one of the 110 river basin districts. Public 
participation is a fundamental principle, so European citizens are playing 
an inﬂ uential role in planning and implementing the WFD measures. 

Fact 3:  Waters must achieve good 

ecological and chemical status, 
to protect human health, water 
supply, natural ecosystems and 
biodiversity 

The deﬁ nition of ecological status looks at the abundance of aquatic 
ﬂ ora and ﬁ sh fauna, the availability of nutrients, and aspects like salinity, 
temperature  and  pollution  by  chemical  pollutants.  Morphological 
features, such as quantity, water ﬂ ow, water depths and structures of the 
river beds, are also taken into account.

The  WFD  classiﬁ cation  scheme  for  surface  water  ecological  status 
includes  ﬁ ve  categories:  high,  good,  moderate,  poor  and  bad. ‘High 
status’ means no or very low human pressure. ‘Good status’ means a 
‘slight’ deviation from this condition, ‘moderate status’ means ‘moderate’ 
deviation, and so on. 

The EU now has more than 100 000 surface water bodies: 80% of them 
rivers, 15% lakes and 5% coastal and transitional waters. The same river 
can contain diﬀ erent water bodies, since the status of the water may 
change. The diagram below applies to a river with high-quality water at 
its source, which gradually becomes more polluted downstream.

High status

Good status

Moderate status

Rivers do not stop at national frontiers – they ﬂ ow on through diﬀ erent 
countries to reach the sea. All EU Member States apart from islands like 
Cyprus  and  Malta  share  waters  with  neighbouring  countries.  A  river 
basin or a catchment covers the entire river system, from the sources of 
small tributaries to the estuary, including its groundwater. The EU and 
the Member States have divided the river basins and associated coastal 
areas into 110 river basin districts, 40 of which are international and cross 
borders, covering about 60% of EU territory. 

Isolated measures to improve water quality cannot be successful without 
taking account of what happens upstream and downstream. Integrated 
river basin management adopts a holistic approach to protecting the 
whole  body  of  water,  its  source,  tributaries,  delta  and  river  mouth, 

To deﬁ ne good chemical status, environmental quality standards have 
been established for 33 new and eight previously regulated chemical 
pollutants  of  high  concern  across  the  EU.  The  WFD  is  backed  up  by 
other  EU  legislation  such  as  the  REACH  regulation  on  chemicals  and 
the Directive for Integrated Pollution and Prevention Control (IPPC) for 
industrial installations. 

The rules for groundwater are slightly diﬀ erent and good chemical and 
quantitative status is the objective. Member States must use geological 
data to identify distinct volumes of water in underground aquifers, and 
European  law  limits  abstraction  to  a  portion  of  the  annual  recharge. 
Groundwater  should  not  be  polluted  at  all  –  any  pollution  must  be 
detected and stopped. 

Case study: 
the Danube River

The Danube river basin district is the largest in 
the EU, and illustrates the variety of waters within 
one river basin. It includes mountain streams 
in the Carpathians and the Alps, groundwater 
bodies, a vast delta, and the Black Sea coastal 
waters. International cooperation around this 
crucial waterway has a long tradition. The ﬁ rst 
free navigation treaty was concluded in 1856, 
and in 1994, 14 countries and the EU got 
together to sign the International Convention on 
the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR). 

Fact 4:  It is crucial to get people involved  

Under  the  WFD,  Member  States  had  to  hold  extensive  consultations  with  the 
public and interested parties to identify ﬁ rst the problems, and then the solutions, 
to  be  included  in  river  basin  management  plans. This  meant  a  comprehensive 
consultation  process,  which  had  to  be  launched  by  the  end  of  2006,  with  a 
consultation  on  signiﬁ cant  water  management  issues  in  2007,  and  a  broad 
consultation lasting at least six months on draft river basin management plans 
in 2008.

Public support and involvement is a precondition for the protection of waters, and 
for the identiﬁ cation of both the problems and the most appropriate measures to 
solve them, including their costs. Without popular backing, regulatory measures 
will not succeed. European citizens have a key role to play in implementation of 
the WFD, and in helping governments to balance the social, environmental and 
economic questions to be taken into account.

Fact 5:  Some progress already, 

but more to be done

The Directive is implemented through six-year recurring cycles, the ﬁ rst of which 
covers the period 2009-2015. After the Directive came into force, Member States 
had to deﬁ ne their river basin districts geographically, and identify the authorities 
responsible  for  water  management  (2003).  The  next  task  was  to  undertake  a 
joint economic and environmental analysis (2004), and to identify water bodies 
at risk of not achieving the 2015 target. By 2006, countries had to launch water 
monitoring networks. 

The Commission checks each step of the implementation of the Directive. In 2007, 
in the ﬁ rst WFD implementation report, it issued its ﬁ rst assessment of progress. 
In  2009,  a  second  WFD  implementation  report  evaluated  eﬀ orts  to  establish 
monitoring networks.

2009 was also the deadline for Member States to draw up RBMPs and programmes 
of measures to meet the WFD’s objectives. All European waters have to achieve 
‘good ecological and chemical status’ by 2015. That means not only low levels of 
chemical pollution but also sustaining healthy aquatic ecosystems. 

The Commission will prepare its third implementation report by 2012, including 
a review of progress and of the status of EU waters, and a survey of the river basin 
management plans with suggestions for their improvement.

Fact 6:  Water management is linked to 

many policies: integration is the only 
way forward for sustainable water 

Water is involved in a huge range of human activities, and therefore in the policies 
applied to regulate them. For example: 

•   Water  is  vital  for  agriculture,  farming  and  livestock.  Since  1985,  the  area  of 
irrigated land in southern Europe has gone up by 20%. Agriculture is the main 
consumer of water.

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