Launch of the Water Information System for Europe & EC Water Policy: Member States must do more to achieve good water quality

The Water Information System for Europe (WISE): http://water.europa.eu/ was launched today during the EU Water Conference held in Brussels. WISE is a web portal which provides the public with a wealth of information on water and water-related topics such as bathing and other water quality data and information on urban wastewater treatment sites. The portal is a collaborative effort between the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Commission (Environment, Joint Research Centre and Eurostat).

The European Commission today published a report on the performance of Europe Union Member States in implementing the Water Framework Directive. The aim of the directive is to achieve a good level of water quality for all rivers, lakes, estuaries, coastal waters and groundwater in the European Union by 2015. While the results of the report are mixed, it is clear that Member States must do more to achieve the directive's objective. Despite this the Commission is confident that it is possible to reach this goal by 2015. Today, the Commission is also launching the Water Information System for Europe, a web portal developed with the European Environment Agency that gathers a wide range of water-related data from across the European Union.

The aim of the 2000 Water Framework Directive (WFD) is to achieve by 2015 good water quality for all waters across the European Union. Under the directive Member States are obliged to adopt River Basin Management Plans by the end of 2009. The document published today reports on Member States' progress to date in adapting their legislation and putting in place the structures for good water management.