The implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires the design of monitoring programmes for all EU Member States. The effectiveness of this implementation will depend to a great extent on the ability of Member States’ laboratories to measure chemical, biological and ecological changes of the quality of Community waters. As such data are the basis for regulatory decisions and measures required to achieve WFD environmental objectives, appropriate quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) systems have to be established across all EU monitoring laboratories. Against this background, the 6th Research Framework Programme project EAQC-WISE has been established to develop a blue print of an efficient and potentially sustainable QA/QC system for WFD implementation.

In detail, the objectives of EAQC-WISE are:

• to study existing QA/QC tools and systems and scientific outputs suitable to set up a QA/QC system to support the WFD implementation and future EU soil monitoring activities, also by exploiting links to other stakeholders, such as policy makers and implementers, Working Groups under the WFD Common Implementation Strategy (CIS), field and reference laboratories, QA/QC tool providers and relevant research projects;
• to undertake research surveys to identify QA/QC gaps, notably for pre-normative research on difficult parameters and sampling operations with emphasis on priority substances and pollutants of WFD Annex VIII;
• to recommend key steps of a QA/QC system that would provide confidence in analytical data from monitoring at river basin scale as well as at European scale;
• to carry out an impact assessment of such a QA/QC system ensuring data comparability at European level.

The blue print of an efficient and potentially sustainable QA/QC system for WFD implementation, main outcome of the project, will be disseminated via the CIRCA server and the Water Information System for Europe (WISE) portal to be established within the next years.

Ecologic's main task within EAQC-WISE is to carry out an impact assessment of a harmonised QA/QC system. The focus of this cross-cutting task will be to assess the impact of the following four main topics: (i) quality of reporting, (ii) issue of cost, (iii) information exchange, and (iv) quality of decision-making. The outcome of this assessment will support policy and decision makers to put the blue print of the proposed QA/QC scheme into practice by addressing several important benefits.

EAQC-WISE is a EU R&D Project (Contract No 022603 (SSPI)) funded under the 6th Framework Programme Priority 8.1 "Policy Oriented Research". Further information can be found on the EAQC-WISE website.

EAQC-WISE is linked to the following projects:

• Screening methods for the Water Framework Directive (SWIFT-WFD)
• Network of reference laboratories and related organisations for monitoring and bio-monitoring of emerging environmental pollutants (NORMAN)