Missing data undermines EU water management

The latest report from the European Commission on the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Floods Directive (FD) underscores a persistent issue in EU water management: a lack of comprehensive and comparable data. This deficiency makes it difficult to draw clear conclusions on the effectiveness of water policies and the progress towards the EU’s environmental goals.

While the report, published on February 4, highlights improved monitoring and a broader understanding of water bodies’ conditions, significant gaps remain. The inability to ensure consistent data across Member States, coupled with incomplete reporting, has created obstacles to fully assessing the status of Europe’s rivers, lakes, and groundwater. Without reliable data, policymakers and environmental agencies are left in a position where effective decision-making is challenging.

Failure to revise water management plans

The assessment of the third River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) and the second Flood Risk Management Plans (FRMPs) reveals that many Member States have struggled with delayed adoption and reporting. This has led to legal proceedings against non-compliant countries. Seven Member States, including Greece, Portugal, and Ireland, failed to provide timely RBMP submissions, while six others, including Slovakia and Cyprus, did not submit their FRMPs. The absence of data from these regions means that the overall assessment does not fully capture the situation across the EU.

Data are not comparable

Additionally, despite improvements in monitoring systems, inconsistencies in methodologies persist. The lack of harmonization in pollutant monitoring, variations in the classification of water bodies, and different approaches to assessing ecological and chemical status further complicate the ability to draw comparative insights. In some cases, the increased number of substances monitored has led to the identification of previously undetected pollutants, paradoxically giving the impression of deteriorating water quality when, in reality, it may reflect enhanced data collection rather than worsening conditions.

Surface water quality declined

According to the report, only 39.5% of Europe’s surface water bodies are in good ecological status, a figure that remains largely unchanged from previous assessments, like the Europe’s State of Water 2024 report. However, some Member States have reported a decline in water quality, which may be attributed more to improved detection methods than to actual environmental degradation. In Poland, for instance, the number of water bodies classified as having good ecological status fell by nearly 23%, while Lithuania, Slovakia, and Croatia also reported significant declines.

Chemical water quality

Chemical status assessments present an even more complex picture. Only 26.8% of surface water bodies were classified as being in good chemical status, a decline from previous years. The pervasive presence of ‘ubiquitous persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic’ (uPBT) substances such as mercury and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) continues to impact water quality. Without these substances, over 80% of surface waters would meet the chemical status criteria, highlighting how legacy pollution continues to skew the data.

Improve data quality

Missing data of Europe’s waters has significant policy implications. The new Water Resilience Strategy, aimed at preserving water quality and quantity, faces hurdles when the baseline data is not uniformly reported or assessed. Moreover, without accurate data, the effectiveness of implemented measures cannot be gauged, making it harder for Member States to make informed decisions on additional actions needed to meet the 2027 deadline for achieving good water status. The European Commission has urged Member States to improve data quality, enhance digital reporting mechanisms, and adopt a more standardized approach to water assessments. Efforts to strengthen transboundary cooperation in managing shared water resources must also be intensified. The report highlights that while coordination frameworks exist, particularly for international river basins such as the Danube and the Rhine, significant disparities remain in how data is collected and shared across borders.