On 16 and 17 June, two important water management events will take place simultaneously in Slovenia:
The Informal Meeting of Water Directors is held on the basis of the 2001 Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) for the Water Framework Directive, pursuant to Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy (the ‘Water Framework Directive').
Within this framework, the European Commission, together with Member States, is preparing the detailed European Commission guidelines and regulations needed for the comparable implementation of the Water Directive in all the Member States and is steering the implementation of the European Water Policy.
The EU Member State, candidate and EFTA State Water Directors' meeting in Slovenia will be dedicated mainly to issues of relevance to preparing the first management plan, shaping the adaptation policy and mitigating climate change in the area of water, as well as to environmental aspects of EU common agricultural policy reform.
In terms of the preparation phase of the management plans stipulated by the Water Framework Directive, the meeting will, in particular, cover the issues of comparable monitoring and assessment of the ecological condition of water in the Member States, detailed guidelines and criteria for determining environmental goals and exceptions, and in particular guidelines on evaluating the disproportionate costs of measures needed to restore the good condition of water bodies, as well as the content of the unified format for Water Framework Directive implementation reports going into the Water Information System for Europe (WISE).
In addition to content of such reports, the meeting will also address activities for the implementation of other European Water Policy Directives, such as the 'Flood Directive', activities for the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive as well as the implementation of policy on droughts or water-shortage.
The two events are connected under the heading of efforts to achieve the objectives of the European Water Policy (the EU Water Framework Directive and the EU Marine Framework Directive).
The meeting of senior representatives of the Adriatic countries will see the first presentation of the European Water Partnership (EWP), which aims to incorporate the sector of the economy as early as the planning phase into water-basin and coastal administration with a view to enhancing competitiveness (as per the Lisbon Strategy) when preparing strategies for effective water resource management. On the initiative of Slovenia, the European Water Partnership will also be attributed a regional dimension (the Sava River Basin and the Adriatic).
In the context of its cooperation with the Slovenian Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, the company ‘Petrol' will organise an exhibition on the endangered loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) and, in Koper on 16 June, at the time of the ministerial meeting will endow the non-governmental organisation ‘Morigenos' – the sea mammal research and protection association – with a new vessel, which is intended to assist the more effective monitoring of dolphins in the Northern Adriatic.
