The EC-Water Framework Directive (WFD) stipulates that all water bodies have to achieve good status or good ecological potential by 2015. It is conceivable, though, that most of the German water bodies will not meet these objectives. Many German Laender will therefore request a time extension from the EU. The authors, along with Ingo Bräuer, Senior Fellow with Ecologic, discuss in their article how exemptions can be justified transparently and in accordance with the requirements of the Directive.

The WFD indeed offers exemptions from reaching good status, either by extending the deadline or by setting less stringent environmental objectives. However, the EU Water Directors have repeatedly highlighted that exemptions may only be justified in exceptional cases. The authorities are facing huge challenges, though: For many water bodies, the required reductions in diffuse pollution and the necessary improvements in terms of morphology and structure of water bodies cannot be achieved by 2015. It can take years for the coordination, planning, approval, and implementation phases to have an effect.

Furthermore, it can be hypothesized that the water authorities will need significantly higher funds in future to implement the WFD and to carry out the necessary measures for reaching the objectives of the WFD. While the ultimate costs of the required programmes is not yet clear, first estimates by some German Laender indicate that budgets in the range of hundreds of millions would have to be made available for the first planning phase. Others do not provide robust cost assessments.

Shifting the focus on exemptions for the first implementation cycle requires a consistent and comprehensive methodology for their justification. This article deals with the question of what such a justification procedure would look like.