Published:
29 Sep 2009 - The European Environment Agency
and the European Water Partnership (EWP)
announced today a new cooperation plan to
improve water use in Europe. The first initiatives
of the cooperation will be to develop a
vision for sustainable water, raise awareness
and strengthen information flows.
"To be truly effective
and relevant, environmental policy must
be developed together with the actors who
will work with it. For the water area, this
means involving those who actually use,
distribute and treat water such as agriculture,
water utilities, industries, the energy
or transport sector. This cooperation with
EWP and its partners is a crucial step for
us in that direction" said Professor
Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director of
the EEA.
The Agency and EWP will
further cooperate on the implementation
of the vision for water in a sustainable
Europe, launched in June 2008. As a part
of its next "European Environment State
and Outlook Report" (SOER) due to be
released in late 2010, the EEA will present
the priorities and problems in implementing
the water vision, as well as the joint efforts
environmental and non-environmental stakeholders
are taking towards the implementation of
the Water Framework Directive, EU's main
legislation on water quality.
The second component
of the cooperation will consist of awareness-raising
- not only of the public, but also of key
actors - to ensure the implementation of
the vision as well as the directive. In
addition to such initiatives as Eye on Earth
– Water Watch to communicate water quality
to the public, the EEA has also developed
indicators and benchmarking on water use
intended for key actors. The cooperation
with EWP will promote such methods to wider
audiences while encouraging both businesses
and users to adopt them for greater transparency.
The final component
will consist of improving water information
management in Europe. Currently, nearly
all relevant information on policy implementation
is brought together in Water Information
System for Europe (WISE), a joint development
of the EEA, the European Commission and
Member States. The cooperation with EWP
will supply much-needed direct information
from water businesses on water use and efficiency
as well as sustainable solutions.
EEA's upcoming work
on water
In its next "European Environment State
and Outlook Report", the EEA will provide,
among others, a comprehensive assessment
of the state of the water environment in
Europe. This assessment will constitute
a baseline, against which subsequent studies
may be conducted. From 2012 onwards, it
will be possible to assess the improvement
in Europe’s water resulting from the implementation
of the Water Framework Directive (WFD).
