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Selecting,designingand implementingNWRM:pre-conditionsforensuringeffectiveness
Many factors influence the implementation, effectiveness and success of NWRM,
and these are likely to differ from one country, catchment, urban or rural area to
thenext.Themain challenge is toprovide the right incentives for different policies
and strategies to be implemented in a coordinated manner. NWRMmay play
a facilitating and connecting role if they are not viewed solely from their water
dimension.As policy coordination is already embedded into existing policies (see
table below), you have a clear basis for promoting it at all decisionmaking levels
including cities,water catchments or rural areas.
Table2 -Policycoordination, apre-requisite
topolicy implementationembedded inEUpolicies
Policy
Basis for ensuring coordination and synergies with other EU policies
and strategies
Water Framework
Directive
The WFD requires
further integration of protection and sustainable management of water into other Community policy
areas such as energy, transport, agriculture, fisheries, regional policy and tourism […].
In addition, the WFD
should
provide a basis for a continued dialogue and for the development of strategies towards a further integration of
policy areas.
Specifically, each River Basin Management Plan (RBMP) should be the focus of a ‘climate check’ to ensure
adaptation to climate change is fully accounted for in RBMPs.
Floods Directive
Because of their ‘water focus’ and common planning unit (river basins/catchments), it is essential to establish
synergies between the achievement of good water status (WFD) and the management of flood risk (Floods Directive).
Very specifically, Article 9 of the Floods Directive specifies that
Member States shall take appropriate steps to
coordinate the application of this Directive and that of Directive 2000/60/EC focusing on opportunities for improving
efficiency, information exchange and for achieving common synergies and benefits having regard to the environmental
objectives laid down in Article 4 of Directive 2000/60/EC
.
Biodiversity
Strategy
Policy coordination is essential to the achievement of the objectives of the EU Biodiversity Strategy.
The Strategy
specifies that
reaching the 2020 target will require the full implementation of existing EU environment legislation,
as well as action at national, regional and local level. Several existing or planned policy initiatives will support
biodiversity objectives. For instance, climate change, which is a significant and increasing pressure on biodiversity
that will alter habitats and ecosystems, is addressed through a comprehensive EU policy package adopted in 20
09.
[…] The Strategy also stresses the importance of a future
framework directive to protect soil, which is needed to
allow the EU to reach the biodiversity aims
.
The need for
EU efforts to promote enhanced cooperation between the
different Biodiversity conventions, Climate Change and Desertification Conventions
is stressed because of the mutual
benefits it will deliver.
Common
Agriculture Policy
Policy integration is made explicit in the objectives of the future CAP that include:
(a)
to pursue climate change
mitigation and adaptation actions thus enabling agriculture to respond to climate change and (b) to guarantee
sustainable production practices and secure the enhanced provision of environmental public goods,
since many of
the public benefits generated through agriculture are not remunerated through the normal functioning of markets.
The direct payments of the future CAP now include the WFD within the scope of cross compliance. The future
CAP highlights the need
to
strengthen the coherence between rural development policy and other EU policies,
in
particular via the establishment of
a
common strategic framework for EU funds.
It also requires MS to designate
ecological focus areas, their aim being to
underpin the implementation of Union policies on the environment, climate
and biodiversity.
Green
Infrastructure
The EU Strategy for Green Infrastructure (GI) stresses
GI can make a significant contribution in the areas of regional
development, climate change, disaster risk management, agriculture/forestry and the environment.
It further specifies
that GI needs to become
a standard part of spatial planning and territorial development that is fully integrated into
the implementation of these policies.
EUWater Blue
Print
Recognising the challenges in achieving good water status as required by the WFD, the EUWater Blue Print stresses
the
need for better implementation and increased integration of water policy objectives into other policy areas, such
as the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP), the Cohesion and Structural Funds and the policies on renewable energy,
transport and integrated disaster management
.
It further stresses the need for increased policy integration that will
support the development of green infrastructure. It also emphasises the need to make
full use of RBMPs that require
an integrated approach to managing water resources across policy areas such as agriculture, aquaculture, energy,
transport and integrated disaster management.
