The European Commission decided to open an infringement procedure by sending letters of formal notice to Belgium (INFR(2024)2231) and Cyprus (INFR(2024)2227) for failing to periodically review water permits in line with the Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60/EC). The Directive requires Member States to establish a programme of measures for each river basin district to ensure good status of European water bodies, such as rivers and lakes. These measures must be included in the river basin management plans which must be established and reported to the Commission every six years.
Each programme of measures must include basic measures to control different types of water abstraction, impoundment, point source discharge, diffuse sources liable to cause pollution, and any other significant adverse impacts on water quality. Member States are required to periodically review and update these controls to determine whether the measures in place still achieve their objectives. The Commission has already initiated similar infringement procedures against four other Member States (the Netherlands, Austria, Slovenia and Finland).
In Belgium, the legislation of the Brussels-Capital, Flemish and Walloon regions respectively is not compliant with the Directive. On water abstraction, these regional legislations do not always provide for a periodic review of the authorisation or they set an interval for review which is too long (exceeding 12 years). Regarding the point source discharge, the intervals set by the three regional legislations between the periodic reviews of the authorisation are too long. In Cyprus, the national legislation does not impose any kind of periodic review, as required by the Directive. The Commission is therefore sending letters of formal notice to Belgium and Cyprus, which now have two months to respond and address the shortcomings raised by the Commission. In the absence of a satisfactory response, the Commission may decide to issue a reasoned opinion.
The Commission calls on Belgium and Cyprus to comply with the Water Framework DirectiveThe European Commission decided to open an infringement procedure by sending letters of formal notice to Belgium (INFR(2024)2231) and Cyprus (INFR(2024)2227) for failing to periodically review water permits in line with the Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60/EC). The Directive requires Member States to establish a programme of measures for each river basin district to ensure good status of European water bodies, such as rivers and lakes. These measures must be included in the river basin management plans which must be established and reported to the Commission every six years. Each programme of measures must include basic measures to control different types of water abstraction, impoundment, point source discharge, diffuse sources liable to cause pollution, and any other significant adverse impacts on water quality.
Member States are required to periodically review and update these controls to determine whether the measures in place still achieve their objectives. The Commission has already initiated similar infringement procedures against four other Member States (the Netherlands, Austria, Slovenia and Finland). In Belgium, the legislation of the Brussels-Capital, Flemish and Walloon regions respectively is not compliant with the Directive. On water abstraction, these regional legislations do not always provide for a periodic review of the authorisation or they set an interval for review which is too long (exceeding 12 years). Regarding the point source discharge, the intervals set by the three regional legislations between the periodic reviews of the authorisation are too long. In Cyprus, the national legislation does not impose any kind of periodic review, as required by the Directive. The Commission is therefore sending letters of formal notice to Belgium and Cyprus, which now have two months to respond and address the shortcomings raised by the Commission. In the absence of a satisfactory response, the Commission may decide to issue a reasoned opinion.
