Q& A | Implementation of the EU water legislation

Context: The Parliament welcomes the Commission’s conclusion that the Water Framework Directive1 (WFD) is fit for purpose, yet considers that its implementation needs to be improved and speeded up. Even though the WFD has been successful in setting up a governance framework for integrated water management for hundreds of thousands of bodies of water in the EU, in slowing down the deterioration of water status and in reducing chemical pollution, less than half of EU’s bodies of water are classified as being in good status in spite of the 2015 deadline. Moreover, only one out of the four freshwater indicators has shown progress over the last 10-15 years, and there have been a number of issues related to the implementation of the water legislation, largely due to the inadequate funding and insufficient integration of environmental objectives into sectoral policies.

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