evaluation of the study visit - Mekong River Commission

MRC Study Visit to the Danube River Basin 2012
Directives that relate to water (e.g. Nitrate Directive, Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, Floods
Directive). The view of the European Commission as enforcement power was described in practice. In
order to demonstrate how this enforcement of European Directives and the evaluation of
implementation are undertaken, examples were demonstrated what kind of procedures are
implemented from European Commission side in case of infringements. An overview was given on
the state-of-play in EU WFD implementation and for which Member States the European Commission
made decisions on referral to the European Court of Justice as of 2011.
An introduction was provided to the process of the Common Implementation Strategy for the EU
WFD that support the countries n to follow a coherent guidance toward consolidated approaches for
implementation.
Due to the fact that international coordination mechanisms and functioning cooperation plays a
crucial role in the European framework, informal and formal cooperation mechanisms including
international conventions, their specifications and aims were presented.
The Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Health invited the delegates of the Study Visit to
participate in a three hour guided field tour along the River Isar in Munich. Focus of this filed visit
was the demonstration of the urban River Isar restoration project that was initiated in the year 2000
and recently finalised. The re-naturated stretch of the River Isar extends over 8 kilometres in the
urban area of Munich. Approximately 35 million Euro have been invested to realise the project and
its measures.
The aim of the project is to improve local flood protection but also to ensure the restoration as well
as the development of ecologically valuable flora/fauna habitats. Ecological reference sites
(environmental baseline conditions) served as crucial implementation basis of this the re-naturation
project. In addition, the demand of urban population to use natural areas in urban surroundings for
leisure has been fulfilled via the implementation of this project.
The project is considered an international showcase project and successfully demonstrates that
infrastructure development can be undertaken while environmental requirements are fully met and
human demands responded to.
The Study Visit ended at the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Health, where the
Director (Martin Grambow) and Head of International Relations (Klaus Schütt) welcomed the MRC
delegation. A very short outline on the Bavarian water management, its aims and issues was given.
The Ministry representatives emphasised their strong interest to cooperate with the Mekong River
Commission and expressed motivation to establish contact via concrete proposals.
4.7.3 Addressed MRC Learning Points
The discussions of the delegates of the Study Visit focused on how the European Commission sees
and enforces the implementation of the EU WFD from their perspective. Links to the situation in the
Lower Mekong Basin were established reflecting if and how a legally binding Directive like the EU
WFD would change the situation in the LMB.
The discussions during the field visit along the River Isar supported the understanding of committed
implementation of measures that combine infrastructure development with also meeting
environmental requirements in a sustainable way.
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