Strategic Moves - Regional Environmental Center for Central and ...

with respect to investments, since for many EU-funded projects the existence of
a management plan is a precondition for receiving financing. Further requirements
include carrying out an assessment of existing disposal installations in order to identify
the additional infrastructure needed to establish an integrated and adequate
network of disposal installations.
Water
The protection of water resources, of fresh-water and salt-water ecosystems,
and of drinking and bathing waters is one of the cornerstones of environmental
protection in Europe. The goals of the European Water Policy are to clean up polluted
water and to ensure that clean water remains clean. The Water Framework Directive
sets the objective of achieving good status in all surface water and
groundwater bodies by 2015. It also introduces the principle of preventing any further
deterioration in status.
The directives making up the EU water framework are the Water Framework
Directive (2000/60/EC), the Drinking Water Directive (98/83/EC), the Urban
Waste Water Treatment Directive (91/271/EEC), the Dangerous Substances in
Water Directive (2006/11/EC), the Nitrates Directive (91/676/EEC) and the
Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC). The new Bathing Water Directive from
2006 repeals the previous directive (76/160/EEC) and ensures that citizens are
given better and earlier information about the quality of their bathing waters. The
new directive has a stronger emphasis on bathing quality management and moves
away from the simple sampling and monitoring of bathing waters. The directive is
integrated into all other EU measures protecting the quality of waters through the
Water Framework Directive (EC DG Enlargement website).
C H A P T E R 4
E C O N O M I C D E V E L O P M E N T A N D T H E E U A C C E S S I O N P R O C E S S
TABLE 4: The main implementation and investment implications of the waste directives (continued)
DIRECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION
IMPLICATIONS
INVESTMENT IMPLICATIONS LIKELY INVESTOR
Sewage Sludge Implemented in close Construction of facilities for the Municipalities, water
Directive cooperation with authorities treatment of sewage sludge, including utilities/companies
(86/278/EEC) responsible for implementing incinerators or other facilities to treat
the Urban Waste Water those types of sludge that cannot be
Treatment Directive used for agricultural purposes
Requires adquate capacities of Development of monitoring infrastructure
laboratories for testing sewage to test the quality of sewage sludge
sludge
Source: REC, 2005; REC and Umweltbundesamt GmbH, 2008; and EC COM(2001) 304
S T R AT E G I C M O V E S 83