Outline for an international conference on development and implementation of ecological assessments in the context of the Water Framework Directive
(DRAFT, 16 June 2004)
1.Introduction
One core element of the Water Framework Directive is the classification of surface waters on the basis of “ecological status”. The use of ecological assessment methods for regulatory purposes is both innovative and challenging. Despite experiences in many Member States, in general, most Member States develop new classification methods and a considerable number of scientific research and development activities are carried out in the past years to support this process. Furthermore, the development of the CIS guidance document as well as the intercalibration exercise managed by the Joint Research Centre and discussed in the Working Group on Ecological Status (ECOSTAT) has set benchmarks for a number of important new developments in the field of ecological status assessment. Since the Member States will contribute to an intercalibration exercise in 2005 and 2006 and since the monitoring programmes including the ecological status parameters must be operational by the end of 2006, it is high time to present the results and developments and available tools in the recent years on an appropriate international conference.
2.Content
The international conference shall present the results and developments on ecological status classification in the WFD CIS process, the Member States and the many R&D projects on European and national level. In particular, the interim or final results of key projects such as REBECCA, AQEM, STAR, FAME, ECOFRAME, EUROLAKES, EMERGE, ALPE, MOLAR, PAEQANN, STREAMES, TARGET and Catchmod cluster (others).
3.Participants
The target group for this conference should be experts from the CIS process and other experts from national or river basin authorities as well as stakeholders and NGO experts. Furthermore, the scientific community should be well represented, in particular researchers from the project consortia of EU projects. Finally, experts from other countries in Europe, in particular those where the EU shares river basins with but also experts around the world to enable the dissemination of the EU experience further afield but also get an overview on similar assessment schemes around the world. The participation should be open for registration without charging a registration fee. The number of participants should be between 200-250.
4.Organisation
The organisation of the conference should be carried out by an Organisation Committee involving the European Commission (DG ENV, RTD, JRC), the leaders of WG 2.A on Ecological Status, some representatives of key research projects (e.g. REBECCA and STAR) and some representatives of Member States. One idea is to mandate the Advisory Board of the REBECCA project with the organisation of the conference.
The necessary budget for the organisation of the conference needs to be defined and sources for funding (DG RTD, ENV etc.) need to be explored soon.
The conference venue should be centrally located and easily accessible for all participants. In this respect, Brussels should be explored as one of the first options. The venue should allow for plenary session but also for parallel sessions on particular subject.
5.Summary of k ey figures
Time of conference: June or September 2005
Number of participants: 200 – 250
Number of speakers: min. 30
Number of days: 2.5
Possible venue: Brussels (explore also other options)
Outcome/products: Conference proceedings
6.Next steps
In order to further develop the ideas, the next two stages are first, the decision-making stage and second, the organisation stage.
1. Decision-making stage:
June 04: Circulate concept widely in Commission, WG 2.A and REBACCA Advisory Board
Sept 04: Commission (ENV, RTD, JRC) to make decision on whether to organise such a conference and whether funding could be ensured. Mandate for Organisation Committee.
Oct-Dec 04: First meeting of Organistion Committee
2. Organisation stage:
to be defined by Organisation Committee.
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