During the meeting water protection and management policy implementation in the Member States will be assessed. In the meeting participants will also discuss how to promote the development of the economy that is based on a sustainable use of the sea, seashore and other natural resources while maintaining high environmental requirements.
Since the year 2012, when the European Commission published a Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's Water Resources, emphasis is still on better implementation of the current water legislation, replenishment and fulfilment of the Member States' developed Water Quality Improvement Plans and Programmes.
Therefore discussions will be held on the inland and marine waters improvement plan for 2016 - 2021. During the event participants will discuss the most important tasks in order to ensure coherent action by the Member States to achieve these objectives. During the meeting, discussions will be held on issues related to marine and inland water legislation and implementation, connecting them with the nature protection policy, for example, preservation of biodiversity and impact of agricultural policy. Participants will discuss international cooperation aspects of internal and marine waters. This issue is significant, since none of the EU Member States independently can resolve global challenges, such as marine litter accumulation and movement in the sea.
It is planned that meeting will be attended by the representatives from 28 EU Member States, representatives from Norway, the European Commission, European Environment Agency (EEA), Joint Research Centre (JRC) and representatives from Regional Sea Conventions (for Baltic sea - HELCOM) secretariats.
Additional information
The first informal EU water sector experts meeting — Water Director's meeting — took place more than 20 years ago, at the time when Luxembourg held the Presidency of the Council of the EU, that aimed to identify the most effective instruments and measures in all the EU Member States to implement EU water policy effectively.
Since this format of the meeting was found to be effective, the following approach was established in other meetings as well, such as, agriculture, nature and the climate director's meeting.
In 2009, Water and Marine Directors joined in a meeting that was aimed to launch the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.