'Europe's waters cry out for help, Member States continue to look the other way', WWF says.  The European Environment Agency (EEA)'s 2018 “State of Water”, estimates that only 40% of European surface waters are currently healthy. This shows that Member States have not been taking seriously their legal commitment to implement the EU water laws to achieve good status for Europe's water bodies. Instead, they have demonstrated little ambition to deviate from their 'business as usual' mentality. "The state of our freshwater bodies is shocking. The findings are not surprising, though, given the fact that Member States have been skirting around their legal commitments under the EU's water laws for the best part of two decades. Governments have been avoiding effective delivery on the legally binding objectives and allowed for further deterioration of our rivers and lakes by using (and misusing!) the various exemptions provided for by the EU Water Framework Directive. It's absurd that exemptions seem to have become a norm in implementing the legislation!" said Andreas Baumüller, Head of Natural Resources at WWF's European Policy Office. "We have long been calling for stronger efforts to protect and restore Europe's water resources, and can only hope that this report will act as a wake-up call." You can read the entire press release by WWF HERE

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'Europe's waters cry out for help, Member States continue to look the other way', WWF says. 

The European Environment Agency (EEA)'s 2018 “State of Water”, estimates that only 40% of European surface waters are currently healthy.

This shows that Member States have not been taking seriously their legal commitment to implement the EU water laws to achieve good status for Europe's water bodies. Instead, they have demonstrated little ambition to deviate from their 'business as usual' mentality.

"The state of our freshwater bodies is shocking. The findings are not surprising, though, given the fact that Member States have been skirting around their legal commitments under the EU's water laws for the best part of two decades. Governments have been avoiding effective delivery on the legally binding objectives and allowed for further deterioration of our rivers and lakes by using (and misusing!) the various exemptions provided for by the EU Water Framework Directive. It's absurd that exemptions seem to have become a norm in implementing the legislation!" said Andreas Baumüller, Head of Natural Resources at WWF's European Policy Office. "We have long been calling for stronger efforts to protect and restore Europe's water resources, and can only hope that this report will act as a wake-up call."

You can read the entire press release by WWF HERE