European Court of Auditors : Upcoming audit report on water quality in the Danube river basin

​Special report No 23/2015 - 'Water quality in the Danube river basin: progress in implementing the Water Framework Directive but still some way to go'will be published, together with a press release, on the ECA websiteeca.europa.euon Monday 25 January 2016 at 9.00 a.m

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) assessed whether the implementation of the Water Framework Directive by the Member States led to an improvement in water quality. The audit focused on surface water quality in four Member States of the Danube river basin covering the upper, central and lower part of the basin: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. It covered three main aspects: pollution from agglomerations, from industrial installations and from agriculture.

The EU provides significant funding to achieve water policy objectives in particular for investments in the field of waste water (€6.35 billion from the European Regional Development Fund / Cohesion Fund under the 2007-2013 programme period for nine Member States in the Danube river basin) and for compensating farmers taking up agri-environmental commitments (€6.39 billion from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development under the 2007-2013 programme period for the same nine Member States).

The ECA's special reports set out the results of its performance and compliance audits of specific budgetary areas or management topics. The ECA selects and designs these audit tasks to be of maximum impact by considering the risks to performance or compliance, the level of income or spending involved, forthcoming developments and political and public interest.