The next conference of the Forum on Recreational Fisheries and Aquatic Environment entitled ‘The Water Framework Directive Fitness Check and the protection of EU waters’ will take place on the 29th of January in the European Parliament in Brussels.
The Water Framework Directive (WFD) is the most comprehensive instrument of EU water policy and is currently being evaluated by the European Commission, according to a procedure known as fitness check, to assess if it is still fit for purpose.
The main objective of the WFD is to achieve good environmental status and sustainable water use across the EU by 2027, at the latest. However, despite some improvements, “a vast majority of Europe’s water bodies still fail to meet the European Union’s minimum target for ‘good status’”, according to the report ‘European waters - assessment of status and pressures 2018’ published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) last July. Experts worry that the ‘good status’ target 2027 won’t be met for many water bodies.
The upcoming RecFishing Forum conference, that will be co-chaired by MEP Norica Nicolai and MEP Ricardo Serrão Santos will bring together policy-makers, stakeholders and legislators to share facts and perspectives on the current status of the WFD.
Among the speakers environmental NGOs, including the European Anglers Alliance, will make the case that the WFD indeed is fit for purpose. They argue that no changes to the current regulatory framework are needed, but that the Member States need to speed up the implementation of existing provisions as most of them are behind schedule.
More information and the draft program are available here.
