In some EU Member States, water balances have been in place for a long time, whilst for others this is a new field of water management. To support their development and use, an EU guidance document was adopted in 2015; however, there are still major challenges for their implementation. The analysis for this report has grouped these challenges (based on Member State self-assessments as well) in four clusters.

With climate change, the impacts of water scarcity and droughts are becoming of increasing concern in Europe. Water allocation mechanisms are major levers to increase water resilience, however, little work has yet occurred on the topic at EU level. This report, prepared in cooperation with members of the ad-hoc technical group on Water Scarcity and Droughts of the EU Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) for the Water Framework Directive (WFD), reviews the literature and practice for water allocation mechanisms. It identifies key challenges in EU Member States and highlights examples of methods in place.

This report elaborates the main challenges faced by water management institutions in implementing e-flows in EU Member States, presents country progress in developing relevant good practices and presents relevant implementation examples.

The European Green Deal and the EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change recognise the need for further action in the field of quantitative water management and include priority actions to stimulate and foster resilience and sustainability. Under a new contract for the European Commission, Ecologic Institute is contributing to a study on water quantity management in Europe and supports the work of the task group on Water Scarcity and Droughts of the Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) of the WFD.