COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Report on the Review of the European Water Scarcity and Droughts Policy
Date: 2012-11-14
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: drought, use of water, water consumption, water management in agriculture, water protection

EUROPEAN 
COMMISSION 

Brussels, 14.11.2012  
COM(2012) 672 final 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL 
COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS 

Report on the Review of the European Water Scarcity and Droughts Policy 

{SWD(2012) 380 final} 

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COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL 
COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS 

Report on the Review of the European Water Scarcity and Droughts Policy 

1. 

INTRODUCTION 

Over the past decade, the concerns about drought events and water scarcity have grown within 
the  EU,  especially  with  regard  to  long-term  imbalances  of  water  demand  and  water 
availability in Europe.  

Following one of the most widespread droughts in 2003 affecting over 100 million people, a 
third  of  the  EU  territory,  with  a  cost  of  at  least  €  8.7  billion,  the  EU  Council  of  Ministers 
asked  the  European  Commission  to  address  the  challenges  of  water  scarcity  and  droughts 
(WS&D) in the EU.  

The Commission responded to this call in the Communication on water scarcity & droughts in 
the  European  Union1,  which  laid  down  a  water  hierarchy  under  which  water  demand 
management  should  come  first,  and  alternative  supply  options  only  once  the  potential  for 
water efficiency has been exhausted. The Communication identified 7 main policy options to 
address the WS&D challenges. Each of these is assessed in sections 3.1.1 - 3.1.7 below.  

The  Commission  has  assessed  progress  in  implementing  these  policy  options  in  annual 
follow-up reports in 2008, 2009 and 2010. This report responds to the 2007 Council request to 
review by 2012 whether the policy on water scarcity and droughts has achieved its objectives 
of  reducing  water  scarcity  and  vulnerability  to  droughts.  It  also  looks  into  whether  action 
taken  in  the  implementation  of  the  Water  Framework  Directive  (WFD)2  has  contributed  to 
addressing  WS&D.  This  assessment  is  based  on  a  number  of  studies3  launched  by  the 
European Commission and on the assessment of the Member States river basin management 
plans  (RBMPs).  It  is  one  of  the  pillars  supporting  the  development  of  the  Blueprint  to 
Safeguard  Europe's  Water  Resources.  Further  details  can  be  found  in  the  annexed 
Commission Staff Working Document. 

2. 

WATER SCARCITY AND DROUGHTS IN EUROPE 

In  2011  and  2012  droughts  affected  large  parts  of  Southern,  Western  and  even  Northern 
Europe. The 2011 drought has been referred to as the worst in a century with rainfall as low as 
40 percent of normal. In both years water availability was significantly reduced in the spring 
and water use restrictions were put in place in large parts of the EU. Over the past thirty years, 
droughts  have  dramatically  increased  in  number  and  impact.  Between  1976  and  2006  the 
number of areas and people affected by droughts went up by almost 20% and the total costs of 
droughts amounted to 100 billion €. 

1 
2 
3 

COM (2007) 414 final 
Directive 2000/60/EC, OJ L 327, 22.12.2000, p.1 
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/quantity/building_blocks.htm 

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In  2007  at  least  11%  of  the  EU  population  and  17%  of  its  territory  had  experienced  water 
scarcity and the phenomena is getting worse; currently an important share of river basins can 
be considered as under water stress all year round. During summer months water scarcity is 
more pronounced in Southern Europe but is also becoming increasingly important in Northern 
basins, including UK and Germany.  

Trends appear to remain stable. A modeled localization of water scarce basins in summer and 
all year round in 2030 shows that the number of river basins under water scarcity are expected 
to increase by up to 50% 4. 

Both  droughts and water scarcity can cause economic losses in key water-using sectors and 
environmental impacts on biodiversity, water quality, deterioration and loss of wetlands, soil 
erosion,  land  degradation  and  desertification.  Some  of  the  effects  are  short-term  and 
conditions quickly return to normal whilst other effects may become permanent.  

3. 

WATER SCARCITY AND DROUGHTS POLICY IN EUROPE 

The  policy  instruments  identified  in  the  2007  Communication  and  the  WFD  are  both 
important tools to revert the trends of water scarcity and the vulnerability to droughts in the 
EU. The following sections show the extent to which this has happened to date and identify 
the gaps in the current WS&D policy.  

3.1. 

Implementation of the 2007 policy options  

3.1.1.  Putting the right price tag on water  

Limited implementation of the cost-recovery and incentive pricing requirements of the WFD 
has taken place. RBMPs provide information on current tariffs for water services, where the 
definition of water services is often not in line with the Commissions interpretation as it limits 
their  scope  to  the  provision  of  drinking  water  and  waste  water  treatment  excluding  self-
abstraction, flood protection, hydropower, navigation etc.5 Even when a broader definition of 
water services is used, recovery of financial costs for water services is not yet the norm in all 
Member States and environmental or resource costs are often not considered.  

If water tariffs are set below cost recovery levels, the degree of asset replacement of drinking 
water  systems  may  not  be  sufficient  to  reduce  leakage  to  a  sustainable  level  and  funds 
available for treatment may not be sufficient to achieve environmental objectives6. 

In agriculture,  the  biggest  consumptive sector for water in the EU, operational costs for the 
provision of water are only partly recovered for 10 Member States and capital costs are often 
subsidized. An important share of water abstractions for agriculture in the EU is not priced, 
even  in  water  stressed  areas,  and  there  is  no  financial  mechanism  for  recovering  the 

4 
5 

6 

Modelling done under the project ClimWatAdapt. 
Infringements  procedures  have  been  launched  by  the  Commission  against  8  Member  States.  The  on-
going  assessment  of  the  Member  States'  RBMPs  shows  that  a  broad  definition  of  water  services  has 
been reported in only 6 out of 23 Member States assessed. 
Resource  and  economic  efficiency  of  water  distribution  networks.  Final  report  from  ERM  to  the 
European Commission 2012 

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environmental and resource costs of individual abstractions or for giving incentives to using 
water more efficiently. Metering is a pre-condition for effective water allocation and pricing7. 

3.1.2.  Allocating water and water-related funding more efficiently 

Authorization  procedures  for  water  abstraction  or  use  are  generally  in  place  in  all  Member 
States,  but  procedures  differ  significantly  and  illegal  abstractions  remain  an  important 
challenge in parts of Europe. The practice to restrict water use in times of water scarcity or 
drought is included in many Member States' water allocation policies.  

In some Member States, restrictions are determined according to a hierarchy of water users, 
under  which  the  environment  is  sometimes  being  included  as  a  separate  sector.  Abstraction 
rules are sometimes more stringent in areas suffering from chronic water shortage.  

Ecological flow schemes8 are increasingly used as an element of water allocation to restrict 
water use, to define the maximum limits of changes to the water bodies, to maintain a certain 
biological condition and to help correct impacts of earlier action.  

In  Europe,  Spain  is  the  only  country  where,  since  1999,  trading  water  use  rights  has  been 
possible  and  since  2005,  water  markets  emerged  with  a  diversity  of  informal  and  formal 
trading  mechanisms.  During  the  2005-2008  drought  in  Spain,  water  market  exchanges 
alleviated the conditions of those basins where water scarcity was most severe. 

Progress has been made in integrating water quantity aspects into the Common Agriculture 
Policy (CAP), and the provisions of the Commission's proposals for the CAP to include the 
WFD in cross compliance and to establish conditionalities for the use of rural development 
funds for irrigation projects are crucial for this trend to continue. The Commission's proposal 
for 2014-2020 has set efficient water supply and water demand management as key actions of 
the ERDF and Cohesion Fund investments into water management. Meanwhile, a 
Communication9
 has reminded Member States about the need to increase the support for 
water efficiency when using cohesion policy funding. The use of EIB funds for Member 
States actions to address WS&D is still low. 

Adapting land use to reduce the vulnerability of water resources is not common at Member 
States  level  and  highly  fragmented  support  actions  and  technical  measures  are  promoted 
instead of integrated land and water use planning. 

Cost-effectiveness  and  cost-benefit  analysis  has  seldom  been  used  by  Member  States  to 
prioritize  investments  under  the  RBMP  process;  hence  the  process  has  not  fully  provided  a 
coordination mechanism for allocating financial resources to priority issues6. 

3.1.3. 

Improving drought risk management  

The development of Drought Management Plans has progressed but their implementation as 
well  as  their  integration  with  RBMPs  and  other  planning  documents  remains  limited.  Some 
measures  in  the  RBMPs  aim  at  reducing  water  abstraction  from  different  sectors,  and  can 
contribute  to  reducing  vulnerability  to  drought;  however  they  are  mainly  focussing  on 
addressing water scarcity. 

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8 

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The role of water pricing and water allocation in agriculture. Final report to from Arcadis et al to the 
European Commission, 2012.  
The flow regimes which are necessary to maintain essential processes of healthy river ecosystems and 
good ecological status of water bodies 
COM(2011) 17 final 

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A  prototype  of  the  European  Drought  Observatory  (EDO)  has  been  developed  and 
interoperability  arrangements  have  been  established  with  key  data  centers  at  European, 
regional and local level. EU wide drought indicators are now available on a preliminary basis 
for precipitation, soil moisture, vegetation response and a combined drought indicator targeted 
to  agricultural  drought.  Further  developments  are  required  to  test  and  improve  the  indicator 
set, to add further data from national and river basin level, to test and implement medium to 
long range drought forecasting and to perform hazard and risk analysis. 

Limited progress has been made with the use of EU Solidarity Funds in the area of droughts. 
The  financing  mechanism  was  activated  once  only  for  the  2008  Drought  in  Cyprus 
Application rules are currently being revised. 

3.1.4.  Considering additional water supply infrastructures  

In some Member States, additional water supply infrastructures have been developed before 
exploiting the full potential of water saving measures, thus in spite of the water hierarchy. The 
potential  environmental  impacts  of  new  water  supply  infrastructure  plans  have  not  been 
systematically considered by Member States. 

In approximately 30% of the screened RBMPs, the development or upgrade of reservoirs and 
other  water  infrastructure  is  foreseen  to  increase  the  water  availability  and  reduce  socio-
economic impacts of reduced water availability.  

25%  of  RBMPs  include  the  development  or  upgrade  of  water  transfer  schemes,  but  with 
different  degrees  of  relevance,  wastewater  re-use  is  included  in  50%  and  artificial  aquifer 
recharge and rainwater harvesting in 30% of the RBMPs.  

The development or upgrade of desalinization plants is only presented in a few RBMPs but is 
of  high  importance  for  River  Basins  in  Southern  Europe.  Adverse  environmental  effects  of 
desalination are not always sufficiently considered in the plans.  

3.1.5.  Fostering water efficient technologies and practices  

Although  substantial  water  efficiency  gains  have  been  achieved  in  irrigated  agriculture, 
improving  irrigation  schedules  and  modernizing  technologies  can  still  provide  significant 
water  savings.  Uncertainty  remains  however  on  how  water  saving  at  the  field  level  is 
effectively  translated  into  overall  water  saving  at  the  farm  and  river  basin  level.  In  some 
cases,  modernization  has  led  to  intensification  or  more  area  being  cultivated  rather  than  a 
decrease in water use10. Efficiency margins are still significant in building, e.g. in relation to 
eco-design of taps and shower heads. 

In the EU there is a large diversity of the efficiency of drinking water supply systems. In some 
cases, water distribution systems with low water efficiency (high leakage rates) can be at their 
optimal economic efficiency level, meaning that additional investments in leakage reduction 
would  result  in  increased  costs  to  the  public  but  would  not  result  in  additional  benefits  to 
either the public or the environment6. 

The  assessment  of  the  RBMPs  shows  that  they  often  have  not  been  adequately  coordinated 
with  other  physical  and  socio-economic  plans  e.g.  on  land  use.  This  lack  of  coordination, 

10 

Water  saving  potential  in  agriculture  in  Europe,  Final  Report  from  Bio  Intelligence  Service  to  the 
European Commission, 2012 

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together with the absence of supporting financing plans, severely hinders the implementation 
of  the  RBMPs  in  general  and  of  measures  relevant  to  WS&D  (including  water  efficiency 
measures) in particular.  

3.1.6.  Fostering the emergence of a water-saving culture in Europe  

Member  States  are  implementing  a  broad  spectrum  of  awareness  raising  activities  to  foster 
water saving, but other tools such as incentive pricing, financing mechanisms for water saving 
eco-design for water using appliances etc are not always sufficiently present. 

In  the  area  of  sustainable  consumption,  two  main  trends  regarding  food  and  agricultural 
product certification and labeling schemes are emerging: schemes with a focus on providing 
information on the water footprint of a product and schemes that are focused on encouraging 
good  water  stewardship.  Labeling  on  the  basis  of  a  water  footprint  is  not  currently 
recommended  as  most  consumers  would  not  have  sufficient  knowledge  to  interpret  the 
information and given the unresolved issues on transparency and reliability of data underlying 
the footprint and its failure to address impacts of the consumed water11.  

The  European  Water  Partnership  has  developed  the  European  Water  Stewardship  (EWS) 
scheme  with  the  aim  to  promote  efficient  practices  by  key  water  users.  Criteria  for 
certification are closely linked with the main WFD requirements and the EWS can therefore 
be a useful tool to optimise water management at RB level.  

3.1.7. 

Improving knowledge and data collection 

EU wide coverage and long-time series of water quantity data are not yet available therefore, 
the basic step of identifying water scarce river basins remains a challenge. Streamlined data 
on  state  and  pressures,  impacts  and  effectiveness  of  responses  to  address  WS&D  still  need 
improvement.  

Progress  towards  the  application  of  common  WS&D  indicators  has  been  made  under  the 
Common Implementation Strategy for the WFD. Three indicators have been agreed so far: 

•  The Standardized Precipitation Index for meteorological drought  

•  The fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Solar Radiation (fAPAR) for drought 

impacts on vegetation. 

•  The  Water  Exploitation  Index  Plus  (WEI+)  for  the  pressure  on  the  water  resources  from 

water abstractions 

These  indicators  can  be  calculated  on  the  basis  of  information,  either  already  available  or 
under development (e.g. physical water balances being developed by the EEA).  

Water  scarcity  and  water  use  efficiency  research  is  scattered  within  the  6th  and  7th 
Framework Programmes and stronger efforts are required to develop synergies with Member 
States reasearch activities inter-alia on water savings and efficiency and to ensure appropriate 
coordination  with  policy  needs.  This  is  gradually  being  implemented  in  recently  launched 
projects. 

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Water footprinting and product labelling, Final Report from RPA to the European Commission, 2011 

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3.2. 

Integration of Water Scarcity and Droughts measures in the RBMPs 

A screening of how water scarcity and droughts issues are covered by the RBMPs has been 
carried out for all countries which have submitted their RBMPs (therefore excluding PT, EL, 
and parts of ES and BE)12. 

WS&D are recognized as relevant issues by RBMPs across the EU. Water scarcity is reported 
for  the  whole  Mediterranean  area,  and  for  some  areas  in  Central,  Eastern  and  Northern 
Europe. 41% of the RBMPs do not consider water scarcity as a relevant concern. Drought is 
reported for a wide range of River Basin Districts accross Europe but 40% of the RBMPs do 
not consider drought relevant. 

The analysis of water quantity aspects lacks adequate foundation in many RBMPs: quantity 
data  are  insufficient  and  water  scarcity  is  often  not  clearly  distinguished  from  droughts  and 
viceversa.  Water  demand  scenarios  are  presented  for  only  35%  and  water  availability 
scenarios for less than 25% of the RBMPs. 80% of the plans do not asses the uncertainty of 
data and 90% do not specify the sources of funds to implement the relevant measures. 

Measures to ensure the achievement of the WFD objectives by enhancing the resilience of the 
ecosystems are included in 45% of the RBMPs. Only in a few basins that face water scarcity, 
restrictions  to  new  water-consuming  developments  are  envisaged  as  a  high  priority  in  the 
RBMPs.  

The influence of other sectoral policies on the reduction of water scarcity and the mitigation 
of drought effects is not sufficiently covered: for only 12% of the RBMPs, the pressures on 
water resources by the different sectors are identified. 

In international basins, there is still a major gap in dealing with water quantity in a way that 
reduces  conflict  risks  and  contributes  to  the  WFDs  objectives.  Only  5%  of  the  screened 
international RBMPs include co-ordinated measures for the entire international RBD to deal 
with WS&D. 

3.3. 

Gaps in the current Water Scarcity and Droughts policy 

The  above  assessment  shows  a  diversity  of  inter-linked  policy  gaps  in  addressing  water 
scarcity and droughts in Europe. These include: 

•  Conceptual gaps: the understanding of the causal relationships between drivers, pressures, 
states  and  impacts  that  would  help  identifying  the  most  cost-effective  measures  for 
addressing  WS&D  is  still  not  sufficient.  Water  scarcity  and  droughts  are  often  not 
distinguished and indicators to illustrate the two phenomena have so far been insufficient. 
The  newly  agreed  indicators  need  to  be  calculated  for  the  entire  EU  at  appropriate 
geographical and time scale. This requires a coherent dataset at EU level. 

•  Information  gaps:  The  RBMPs  include  only  limited  data  on  current  and  future  water 
demand and availability as well as on measures that target WS&D, availability of funding 
and their expected impact on WS&D. The absence of robust information hampers a proper 
assessment of the effectiveness and socio-economic impacts of measures.  

12 

The report may consequently underestimate the WS&D challenge in Europe 

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•  Policy, governance and implementation gaps: overall, most support actions and measures 
proposed  by  Member  States  to  address  WS&D  target  pressures,  state  &  impacts,  giving 
priority to measures to increase water supply. Measures that target key drivers at the origin 
of  WS&D,  or  the  implementation  of  accompanying  measures  such  as  metering, 
pricing/subsidies and restriction of water consumption are proposed in a few RBMPs only. 
Responsibilities  for  and  financing  of  the  proposed  measures  is  unclear.  Adequate 
coordination  with  other  planning  processes  and  availability  of  financial  resources  is  not 
satisfactory.  Finally,  the  links  between  water  scarcity  and  ecological  flows  are  not  well 
established.  

4. 

TACKLING WATER QUANTITY ISSUES BETTER IN THE FUTURE  

The  main  aim  when  dealing  with  WS&D  is  to  restore  or  sustain  the  water  balance  in  all 
European  river  basins  while  taking  fully  into  account  the  water  requirements  of  aquatic 
ecosystems.  

While the WFD requirements on water quantity are not spelled out in great detail for surface 
waters13, Good Ecological Status is unlikely to be reached in a water body with significantly 
altered flows due to e.g. over-abstraction. Therefore adequate management of water quantity 
is an implicit requirement of the WFD. A common understanding of water scarcity and 
droughts has been reached in the framework of the CIS process. This needs to be fully 
considered in the next RBMPs.  
The European Innovation Partnership on Water14 can play a significant role in facilitating the 
development of innovative solutions to deal with water quantity issues, while the European 
Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability15 will address 
water management at farm level, contributing to a more efficient use of water in agriculture. 
In addition, a number of tools are important to improve water quantity management in the 
next RBMPs. The main ones are highlighted here below: 

4.1. 

Defining and implementing ecological flows 

The establishment and enforcement of adequate ecological flows for all water bodies in 
Europe is essential for dealing efficiently with WS&D issues and to achieve Good Ecological 
Status as required by the WFD as well as significant co-benefits for energy savings, climate 
change mitigation and adaptation, nature and biodiversity. It requires the adaptation of current 
water allocation to consider the ecological needs of water-dependent ecosystems. If water 
allocations reflect ecological flow requirements, it will be possible to prevent or mitigate the 
effects of WS&D. 

4.2. 

Defining and implementing targets for water efficiency 

RBMPs  need  to  include  quantitative  data  on  water  demand  and  availability  including  better 
forecasting  of  water  availability  and  consumption.  Data  should  also  be  more  transparent, 
revealing uncertainties, time spans, and sources. In drought-prone areas, drought uncertainties 
and  variations  (e.g.  of  the  water  availability)  should  be  considered  in  the  RBMP’s  baseline 
and not be interpreted as unexpected natural climate extremes. 

13 
14 
15 

Quantity requirements are explicit for ground water 
COM(2012)216 
COM(2012) 79 

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There  is  still  a  large  potential  for  water  efficiency  measures  in  all  the  main  water  using 
sectors: agriculture, industry, distribution networks, buildings and energy production. But the 
water  saving  potential  is  very  context  specific  and  targets  are  best  set  at  local  level  by 
stakeholders who have full knowledge of the different water use sectors and components of 
the  hydrological  cycle  and  who  can  ensure  that  targets  are  coherent  and  that  efficiency 
measures are implemented where the socio-economic costs are the lowest.  

4.3. 

Promoting economic incentives for efficient water use 

Proper  implementation  of  the  WFD  article  9  is  crucial  for  tackling  WS&D.  Widening  the 
scope of current economic instruments is necessary to ensure that they provide incentives for 
sustainable water abstraction and use: where there are currently no tariffs, they need to be put 
in place; consumption based water tariffs need to be promoted; the role of abstraction charges 
and taxes needs to be expanded so that the environmental and resource costs are internalised 
into the water users decisions.  

Ensuring that economic instruments better reflect the economic value of water will also give 
incentives  for  additional  investments  in  leakage  control  by  water  service  providers, 
contributing to both full cost recovery and the long term sustainability and efficiency of water 
service  provision.  Finally,  earmarking  financial  revenues  for  WS&D  related  measures  will 
also support achieving WS&D targets. 

The  establishment  of  water  market/trading  mechanisms  with  a  defined  cap  for  the 
environment  is  a  mechanism  that  can  provide  the  opportunity  for  Payment  for  Ecosystem 
Services  and  thereby  for  achieving  a  sustainable  balance  for  river  basins  with  deficit. 
Incidental  benefits  include  the  (temporary  or  permanent)  reallocation  of  water  use  rights 
among economic users that can deliver additional economic benefits. 

4.4. 

Guiding land use to respond to water scarcity  

Ensuring that new economic development is coherent with the water availability is the basis 
for long term sustainability, and specific attention on land use is required. This re-emphasises 
the  need  for  proper  integration  between  RBMPs  and  other  economic  and  physical  planning 
processes. 

To  ensure  this,  RBMPs  need  to  be  adequately  coordinated  with  other  physical  &  socio-
economic plans prior to adoption and financial resources for their implementation need to be 
identified. This will ensure that costs and benefits of actions are properly considered and that 
the  implementation  of  the  WFD  principle  of  cost  effectiveness  is  used  to  achieve  the 
objectives of the RBMP at the least cost.  

4.5. 

Enhancing drought management in Europe 

Further development of the EDO to operate as an early-warning system will be a necessary 
tool to help Member States and economic operators to act as early as possible and prepare for 
forthcoming  droughts.  This  should  be  combined  with  an  effective  adaptation  of  the  EU 
Solidarity  Fund  in  case  of  drought  emergency  to  cope  with  damages  that  could  not  be 
avoided. 

Further  efforts  are  required  to  develop  and  implement  a  coherent  set  of  actions  to  address 
drought  at  the  river  basin  scale  within  the  planning  process  of  the  WFD.  Land  use 
developments  should  be  coherent  with  the  water  availability  in  the  RBDs,  including  its 

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variability. In this respect, Green Infrastructures such as  retention measures can play a very 
positive role. 

Moreover, alternative water supply options with low environmental impact such as water re-
use need to be further relied upon. 

4.6. 

Promoting resilience to climate change. 

Climate  change  is  expected  to  worsen  the  impacts  of  already  existing  stresses  on  water  as 
changes in precipitation, combined with rising temperatures, will cause significant changes in 
the quality and availability of water resources. A combination of adaptation measures must be 
included in the policy answers to water scarcity and drought.  

5. 

CONCLUSION 

The  overall  objective  of  the  WS&D  policy  -  to  revert  the  WS&D  trends  -  has  not  been 
achieved, even if progress has taken place in implementing the 7 policy instruments identified 
in the Commissions Communication from 20071. 

The WS&D policy has to some extent been considered as self-standing by Member States and 
a stronger focus on quantity issues in the implementation of the WFD is critical. In the next 
implementation cycles of the WFD this need to be ensured along with further integration of 
water quantity issues into sectoral policies. 

The majority of measures applied by Member States target pressures, state and impacts and 
only very few measures target key drivers.  

The  identified  policy  gaps  and  concrete  options  to  address  them  are  considered  in  the 
Commission Communication 'Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's Water Resources' with a view 
to  integrating  water  quantity  issues  more  fully  into  the  overall  policy  framework.  Where 
relevant,  further  policy  measures  may  be  addressed  in  the  Adaptation  to  climate  change 
Strategy foreseen for spring 2013. 

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