The European Commission published new guidance on Water Framework Directive (WFD) implementation on Friday, outlining how existing legislation allows strategic projects to move forward while complying with water protection rules. This confirms what water services have been pointing out: there is no need to revise the WFD again.
The Commission guidance points to several concrete steps Member States can take to approve strategic industrial projects, including mining projects, while respecting the safeguards enshrined in the WFD – notably reducing emissions from other point sources in the water body, and taking into account mixing zones outside the discharge point. It also clarifies the conditions under which exemptions can be allowed under Article 4 of the Directive.
The examples listed in the guidance corroborate what Member States such as France and the Netherlands have told the Commission: there is no evidence that the WFD is stopping mining projects from going ahead. Changing the text of the Directive would risk weakening water protection standards and shifting costs from polluters to taxpayers and water bills, all without addressing the real bottlenecks.
We call on the Commission, in light of this evidence, to refrain from proposing a WFD revision and instead focus its resources on helping Member States implement the Directive in a thorough and harmonised way.