Over the past years, concerns and wide recognition about drought events and water scarcity have grown across the EU. In 2007, the European Commission issued a Communication - Addressing the challenge of water scarcity and droughts in the EU which identified drought management plans as one of the main policy instruments to combat droughts. In 2019, the Commission issued the 5th report on the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and of the Floods Directive. Some of the recommendations to the Member States included the need to make more use of drought management plans and better address water quantitative issues and climate change impacts in the 3rd river basin management plans that were due for adoption at the end of 2021.
Against this background, the objectives of the assessment in this project are:
- To better understand national policies, strategies and plans on droughts in EU Member States.
- To gather detailed knowledge on existing drought management plans, including the use of exemptions under Art. 4(6) of the WFD.
- To identify main challenges and lessons learnt in applying drought management, as well as the main issues to be addressed in order to improve the integration of drought management into river basin management planning.
Ecologic Institute is part of the team that assesses national policies, strategies and plans on droughts in EU Member States based on document review and interviews with competent authorities and relevant stakeholders.
The outcomes of the assessment will support the work of the ad-hoc task group on water scarcity & droughts under the Common Implementation Strategy of the WFD.
