The Final Sprint for Europe’s Rivers

This report, an update of the first edition released in June 2021, includes a new NGOs analysis of the quality and level of commitment of eight draft River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) in three new countries, Poland, Romania and Spain. This comes in addition to the 13 draft RBMPs included in the previous version. The current report draws up conclusions and recommendations to ensure that the final sprint towards the 2027 deadline is successful.

RBMPs are required every six years under the Water Framework Directive (WFD) adopted 20 years ago, to outline how the environmental objectives for each river basin will be achieved. The 2022-2027 RBMPs are crucial, as they are the last ones before the WFD’s 2027 good water health deadline.