EU Water Law

The structures provided for by the Water Framework Directive are, some, of a general nature, relying upon water management at the most appropriate hydrological and administrative level (A) and, for others, specific to certain areas in need of reinforced protection (B).

(A) River basin district

Member States must identify the basin districts located within their territories. Being the natural hydrological units of the relevant phenomenon, they are defined in a simple and traditional way as “the area of land from which all surfaces run-off flows through a sequence of streams, rivers and, possibly, lakes into the sea at a single river mouth, estuary or delta” (Article 2(13)). Those districts are regrouped in river basin districts (Article 2(15) and Article 3(1)). It is at the level of such river basin districts that the management of water resources should take place, and this is an innovation brought by the WFD. Appropriate administrative arrangements for the application of the rules of the WFD must thus be made individually within each river basin district (Article 3(2)), albeit in a coordinated way in each such basin and for the whole of it (Article 3(4) and para. 13 of the preamble).

River basins covering the territory of more than one Member State should be assigned to an international river basin district with respect to which there should be interstate cooperation. Each one of them is required to make the appropriate administrative arrangements within the portion of any international river basin district lying within its territory (Article 3(3)). In practice, the duty of coordination is to a large extent satisfied by the pre-existing structures derived from international agreements (such as the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine and the International Commission for the Protection of the Meuse (Case C-32/05 Commission v Luxembourg, paras. 69-70).

In the case of river basin districts extending beyond the territory of the Union, the Member States are only bound, in addition, to applying the rules of the Directive on their own respective territories, to endeavour to establish appropriate coordination with the relevant third countries (Article 3(5)).