- Gd 2 - waterbodies

The EU Member States, Norway and the European Commission have jointly developed a common strategy for supporting the implementation of the Directive 2000/60/EC establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy (hereafter referred to as Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) for the Water Framework Directive (WFD)). The main aim of this strategy is to allow a coherent and harmonious implementation of this Directive. Focus is on methodological questions related to a common understanding of the technical and scientific implications of the Water Framework Directive.
One of the main short-term objectives of the strategy is the development of non-legally binding and practical Guidance Documents on various technical issues of the Directive. These Guidance Documents are targeted to those experts who are directly or indirectly implementing the Water Framework Directive in river basins. The structure, presentation and terminology is therefore adapted to the needs of these experts and formal, legalistic language is avoided wherever possible.
In the context of the above-mentioned strategy, the European Commission (Directorate General for Environment, Unit B.1) was invited to set up an informal process for drafting a horizontal Guidance on the application of the term 'water body' which is defined in the Directive. This term is essential for several aspects of implementation, such as the typology, the reference conditions, the classification of the status and the monitoring.
A drafting group was established in March 2002 and a first draft was discussed on the Strategic Co-ordination Group meeting in April 2002 and the meeting of the Water Directors in June 2002. Following this meeting in Valencia, the members of the Strategic Co-ordination Group were invited to comment the draft paper in two rounds and revised versions were presented in each meeting of the group. In addition, the Expert Advisory Forum (EAF) on Groundwater discussed and contributed twice to the refinement of the groundwater Section in this document.
Due to the active and constructive contribution of all experts in the drafting group, the EAF Groundwater and the Strategic Co-ordination Group, it was possible to present the final draft of the horizontal Guidance Document on 'water bodies' to the meeting in Copenhagen, where the Water Directors reached the following conclusions:
'We, the water directors of the European Union, Norway, Switzerland and the countries applying for accession to the European Union, have examined and endorsed this Guidance during our informal meeting under the Danish Presidency in Copenhagen (21/22 November 2002). We would like to thank the participants of the Working Group and, in particular, the leaders of the Directorate General for Environment of the European Commission for preparing this high quality document.
We strongly believe that this and other Guidance Documents developed under the Common Implementation Strategy will play a key role in the process of implementing the Water Framework Directive.
This Guidance Document is a living document that will need continuous input and improvements as application and experience build up in all countries of the European Union and beyond. We agree, however, that this document will be made publicly available in its current form in order to present it to a wider public as a basis for carrying forward ongoing implementation work.
Moreover, we welcome that several volunteers have committed themselves to test and validate this and other documents in the so-called pilot river basins across Europe during 2003 and 2004 in order to ensure that the Guidance is applicable in practice.
We also commit ourselves to assess and decide upon the necessity for reviewing this document following the pilot testing exercises and the first experiences gained in the initial stages of the implementation.'