Repeal of outdated and irrelevant legislation: Reporting Directive 91/692/EEC

Reporting and information exchange in the water sector has seen a drastic overhaul and reshaping in past years, in particular through the Water Information System for Europe (WISE). WISE was developed as a result of the Water Framework Directive which advocates an integrated and holistic approach to water management and repealed more specific legislation, which were reported on using the water questionnaires[1]. WISE covers monitoring and reporting of all water-related legislation including the ones adopted later (e.g. the Flood Risk Management Directive), but goes beyond that. WISE looks at ways of streamlining legislative reporting with the

European Environment Agency’s State of the Environment data flow.

 Since its launch in 2007 WISE has

-       moved to electronic reporting only, getting rid of paper reporting;

-       harmonised electronic reporting to build comparable publicly accessible EU datasets;

-       streamlined with State of the Environment reporting to avoid duplication and ensure complementarity – "provide once, use often";

-       stimulated the development of national information systems (Sweden, France, Spain, Austria, Ireland...).

In particular, the reporting under the second river basin management plans of the Water Framework Directive (March 2016) is a state-of-the-art example of what can be achieved by effective collaboration between all partners.

The 1991 Reporting Directive[2] covered a range of reporting obligations inter alia in the water sector. All of these (e.g. old Bathing Water Directive 1976, Surface Water Quality Directive 1975, Dangerous Substances Directive 1976, old Groundwater Directive 1980) have been repealed, and up-to-date reporting requirements been developed and integrated into new legislation, in particular the Water Framework Directive. The related reporting obligations under Directive 91/692/EEC have consequently become obsolete.

Consequently, a Commission Proposal[3] of 16 December 2016 to the legislators (European Parliament and Council) foresees repeal the 1991 Reporting Directive (article 7 of the Proposal).