The European Commission is urging seven Member States including Malta, to comply with EU water legislation and submit their plans for managing Europe’s river basins. The other Member States concerned are Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, Portugal and Slovenia. The river basin management plans should have been adopted by 22 December 2009 at the latest. On the recommendation of Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik, reasoned opinions are therefore being sent. In the absence of satisfactory responses from the Member States concerned within two months, the Commission may refer them to the European Court of Justice.

Directive 2000/60/EC establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy requires Member States to publish a management plan for each river district at the latest nine years after the legislation entered into force. Member States sharing international rivers must work together to produce a single international river basin management plan.

The Water Framework Directive requires Member States to consult the public and other interested parties on the plans and publish draft copies, allowing six months for comments in writing. Because of these requirements, public consultations should have started at the latest in December 2008.

Despite the fact that many Member States have submitted their plans, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, Malta, Portugal and Slovenia have failed to do so. The Commission is therefore sending these Member States a reasoned opinion.

The Water Framework Directive obliges Member States to protect and restore all bodies of ground water and surface water (rivers, lakes, canals and coastal water) to achieve good status by 2015 at the latest. River Basin Management Plans give a comprehensive overview of the main issues for each river basin district and should include the specific measures needed to achieve set environmental quality objectives. Where any exemptions are applied, a thorough justification must be provided.

The Governemtn of Malta responded by saying that today the European Commission adopted a decision to submit reasoned opinions to seven Member States, amongst them Malta, with regard to the alleged failure to submit River Basin Management Plans under Directive 2000/60/EC establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy.

Malta has formulated its River Basin Management Plan (referred to locally as the ‘Water Catchment Management Plan’); it was officially launched for public consultation on 26 May 2010.

A six-month public consultation period is currently taking place, as required by the Water Framework Directive. The general public has been invited to submit comments on the Plan by the end of November 2010, whilst specific consultation meetings with key stakeholders have already been carried out. This draft was also submitted to the Commission.

The Plan may be revised once the six-month public consultation process is over and will then be adopted by the Maltese Government. The final Plan will then be submitted to the Commission.

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