The international workshop "Implementing the Economic Aspects of the WFD – Future Challenges in the Elbe River Basin", held in Leipzig on 7-8 July 2005, saw a gathering of 60 WFD experts from all over Europe. The results of this workshop have been summarised by Britta Pielen, Benjamin Görlach and Robert Holländer.

Economic aspects play a key role in the implementation process of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). With the 2004-report on the economic analysis according to Article 5 and Annex III completed, the first milestone of the economic implementation process has been achieved within river basins across Europe. This provides a good time for taking stock and evaluating the work accomplished so far – also in the international Elbe river basin, extending within the territory of Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria and Poland.

Against this background, the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety hosted the international workshop "Economic Aspects of the Water Framework Directive – Future Challenges in the Elbe River Basin" on 7-8 July 2005 in Leipzig. The Ministry of Saxony and the University of Leipzig supported this workshop, which was mainly organised by Ecologic Associate Britta Pielen.