Announcements 22.03.2012 Flash Eurobarometer on Water shows that most Europeans realise the seriousness of water-related problems and support stronger EU action. Read more: Press Release (22/03/2012) Summary of the Eurobarometer on Water (March 2012) 15.03.2012: Consultation on Policy Options for the Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's Waters. Deadline: 07/06/2012. UNEP European advertisement competition! UNEP calls on European Artists, professional or not, to create a newspaper ad that inspires others to preserve water now & for future generations. Read more... 11/10/2011: Blueprint leaflet published!

Since the adoption of the Water Framework Directive in 2000, EU water policy has made another step change by taking an integrated approach on the basis of the concept of river basin management aimed at achieving good status of all EU waters by 2015.

However, as pointed out by the European Environment Agency's 2010 State of the Environment Report, the achievement of EU water policy goals appears far from certain due to a number of old and emerging challenges. The Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's Water will be the EU policy response to these challenges. It will aim to ensure good quality water in sufficient quantities for all legitimate uses. The time horizon of the Blueprint is 2020 since it is closely related to the EU 2020 Strategy and, in particular, to our planned Resource Efficiency Roadmap. The Blueprint will be the water milestone on that Roadmap. However, the analysis underpinning the Blueprint will cover a longer time span, up to 2050, and will drive our policy for a longer period.

To achieve this ambitious objective, the Blueprint will synthesise policy recommendations building on four on-going assessments:

1. The assessment of the River Basin Management Plans delivered by the Member States under the Water Framework Directive;

2. The review of the EU action on Water Scarcity and Drought;

3. The assessment of the vulnerability of water resources to climate change and other man made pressures and;

4. The Fitness Check which will address the whole EU water policy in the framework of the Commission Better Regulation approach.

• The outputs of these 4 reviews, together with a large number of studies launched by DG Environment, DG Research, the Joint Research Centre, the European Environment Agency and others, will provide the knowledge base to develop the policy options that can deliver better implementation, better integration and completion of EU water policy.

• These options will be subject to a thorough impact assessment in order to understand their potential environmental and socio-economic impacts. Action is envisaged in 7 specific areas:

1. Focus will be given to land management to see what measures could be widely implemented in the EU and the policy instruments that can accelerate their implementation, in particular water-related green infrastructure measures such as reforestation, floodplains restoration, soil management, and sustainable urban drainage systems. In addition to integration of such measures into the Common Agricultural and Cohesion Policies, the European Commission will develop a methodological framework for the wider application of payments for ecosystem services. This is a key tool missing to alleviate the failure of the market to duly account for such services and its application can create important economic incentives for water and biodiversity protection.

2. The Blueprint will develop a consistent approach for the internalisation of costs from water use and water pollution. The objective of the Blueprint will be to foster the recovery of environmental costs through the application of a portfolio of economic and communication instruments, complementing regulatory instruments. The options to be developed include criteria for pricing, taxation, removal of harmful subsidies, public procurements and the setting up of water allocation schemes (including tradable permits) in water scarce areas.

3. The Blueprint will tackle water efficiency. At present, we do not know the size of the gap in Europe, in 2020 or 2050, between water demand and water availability. In this respect, the water and ecosystem accounts, developed together with the EEA, will quantify how much water flows in and out of the river basins. This is the basic essential information which is largely missing today to optimize water uses at river basin level and look at alternatives, in particular considering the material and virtual water flows between catchments. On this basis, the Blueprint will provide first indications for water efficiency targets at EU level taking into account the great variety of situations across economic sectors and geographic areas. It will also aim at fostering the development of targets for water efficiency (and quality improvement) in the Member States at sectoral and river basin level. In addition, it will look at ways to improve the water efficiency both in buildings and in distribution networks.

4. The Blueprint will identify the main financial, technological, organisational and sociological barriers to innovation in the area of water resource management, and ways to overcome them.

5. The Blueprint will look at ways to improve the governance system stemming from EU water policy, including the administrative setup and the potential to reduce the administrative burden, while providing the reactive capacity needed to face emerging challenges such as climate change adaptation.

6. The Blueprint will develop options to improve the quality of the knowledge base for water policy making. These could include an improvement of the statistical information on pressures of economic activity on water resources; increased use of satellite and land GMES observations to monitor status and pressures; enhancing the Water Information System for Europe (WISE) to include policy relevant indicators; developing a roadmap for water research under the next Framework Programme.

7. Finally, the Blueprint will also recognise the global aspects of water policy and reinforce the EU's commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on access to drinking water and sanitation while taking into account relevant outcomes of the Rio+20 Conference.

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