EAQC-WISE - European Analytical Quality Control in support of the Water Framework Directive via the Water Information System for Europe

The implementation of the WFD requires the design of monitoring programmes for all Member States (MS) and its effectiveness highly depends on the ability of MS laboratories to measure chemical, biological and ecological changes of the quality of Community waters. As such analytical data are the basis for regulatory decisions and measures required to achieve WFD environmental objectives, an appropriate analytical quality control system has to be established across all EU monitoring laboratories to ensure the reliability and comparability of these data.

The project EAQC-WISE supported these quality objectives by:

1. Studying existing QA/QC tools and systems and scientific outputs suitable to set up a QA/QC system to support the WFD implementation and future EU soil monitoring activities;
2. Undertaking research surveys to identify QA/QC gaps, notably for pre-normative research on difficult parameters and sampling operations with emphasis on priority substances and pollutants of WFD Annex VIII;
3. Recommending key steps of a QA/QC system to provide confidence in analytical data from monitoring at river basin scale as well as at European scale;
4. Carrying out an impact assessment of such a QA/QC system to ensure data comparability at European level.