Water Framework Directive
Directions for water protection
It falls upon the Member States to determine the practical measures which they include in their programmes in order to achieve the objectives set forth by the Water Framework Directive and by the implementing measures adopted in compliance with subsequently adopted strategies. The Directive thus established “a complex process involving a number of extensively regulated stages, for the purpose of enabling the Member States to implement the necessary measures, on the basis of the specific features and the characteristics of the bodies of water identified in their territories” (Case C 461/13 Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland, para. 42).
Groundwater pollution, on the one hand, is the subject-matter of Directive 2006/118/EC on the protection of groundwater against pollution and deterioration, the provisions of which are in some way merged into the several mechanisms of the WFD, so that they should be considered together.
The strategy with respect to the pollution of surface water was set forth in Directive 2008/105/EC on environmental quality standards in the field of water policy, which aims at progressively reducing the discharge of certain pollutants including, but not limited to, approximately forty “priority substances” listed in Annex X of the WFD, and to stop or suppress progressively the discharge of approximately 20 of them which are characterised as “hazardous priority substances.” The WFD also provides for emission controls and quality standards (Article 16(6) and (7)).