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Under its mandate for 2005-06, the Strategic Steering Group (SSG) on WFD and Agriculture has initiated numerous activities including five issues reports and two important conferences hosted under the UK and Austrian presidency, respectively. Due to the huge amount of information and debates produced by these activities, a synthesis of the SSG activities during the duration of this mandate was identified to be necessary. The European Commission, DG Environment commissioned Ecologic to prepare this synthesis document.

To strengthen the link between agriculture and Water Framework Directive (WFD) has been identified as one of the highest priorities in the 2005-2006 work programme in the Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) for the WFD. A mandate focusing on how the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) can contribute to the achievements of the WFD objectives was given to the SSG on WFD and Agriculture. The group was established under the co-leadership of the UK (DEFRA - Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and the European Commission (DG Environment with support from DG Agriculture and Rural Development). The aim of the SSG was to identify issues which affect a Member State’s ability to meet WFD objectives as a result of pressures from agriculture, and to put forward suggestions for how best to manage the risk of not meeting these objectives, taking into account the opportunities of the reformed CAP.

The activities of the SSG include the preparation of five issue reports on: (1) pressures and impacts of agriculture on water; (2) rural development and WFD; (3) water pricing; (4) cross compliance and WFD; and (5) cooperation and participation, available for download on the CAP&WFD project website.

In addition, two important conferences were organised in London on 20-21 September 2005 and Vienna on 3-4 March 2006 to support the exchange among EU Member States on this issue. These activities led to the production of a huge amount of information and debates. The European Commission, DG Environment commissioned Ecologic to prepare a synthesis of the activity of the SSG during 2005 and 2006, taking into account the conferences outcomes and issue reports. The document summarises the main findings of SSG activities and, based on this, identifies key topics that have to be investigated and discussed in order to further strengthen the present link between the CAP and WFD.

The undertaking is a project under the Framework Contract with the European Commission, DG Environment on economic analysis in the context of environmental policies and sustainable development.