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The EU Water Framework Directive has been a key influence for water policies in Europe since its entry into force in 2000. A first review and stocktaking of the Directive's impact is scheduled for 2007 by the European Commission. In this context, DG Environment has asked a consortium to provide information on the costs and benefits of the WFD implementation, with a particular focus on the agricultural sector.

It is not the aim of this project to conduct a full cost-benefit analysis of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and its implementation. Given that the implementation of the WFD is to take place until 2015, and important issues for implementation have not been resolved, such an analysis would be premature. Instead, the project team will rather gather information on the costs and benefits of selected aspects of the WFD. To this end, in particular the experiences with the pilot river basins will be examined. The work will be conducted in order to support the European Commission's DG Environment in its intermediate review of the WFD implementation, which was slated for the year 2007.

Ecologic will contribute different case studies to the project, in which the agriculture-related cost and benefits of the WFD are to be more closely investigated. The research effort represents the 15th project of the Framework Contract Economic Analysis in the Context of Environmental Policies and of Sustainable Development with the DG Environment.