Regional Workshop “Tools and guidance for assessing resource and environmental cost in the WFD” and 3rd Annual Meeting
Date: 29-31.03.2016
Place: Skopje, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Organizer: ECRAN Secretariat with EC TAIEX Unit
The 3rd Annual Meeting of the Water Management Working Group will take place back to back to
the workshop dedicated to the “Resource and Environmental costs according to the WFD”. The main
objective of the 3rd Annual working group meeting, from the perspective of the Water Management
WG consists in reaching consensus on the Water Management WG Work Plan 2016, presenting the
approaches and the outcomes of the previous reporting period, and identifying key issues and
challenges for finalizing the remaining activities of the group, within the frame of ECRAN project.
Following the 3rd annual meeting, the workshop will be organised with the aims to discuss the
theory, approaches, methodologies and lessons learned in relation with the calculation of resources
and environmental costs, in line with the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The WFD is promoting
the application of sound economic principles, methods and instruments for supporting the
achievement of its objectives (good ecological status) in Europe. To respond to these challenges and
considering the results obtained so far on the preparation of the Program of Measures, and the
development of the River Basin Management Plan, a specific task on the resource costs and
environmental costs, and as well on costs & benefits has been included in the agenda of the
workshop.
General Objective of the Workshop
To develop a knowledge base on the economic dimensions of water management (i.e. costs,
benefits, environmental and resource cost) that will facilitate the overall assessment of the
economic impact (costs & benefits) of the WFD and the economic assessment of policy options.
Expected Results of the Workshop:
- Improved understanding of the topics, challenges and tasks, and related responsibilities along the calculation of the resource and environmental costs, in line with WFD;
- Exchange of experiences and knowledge significantly improved;
- Key obstacles impeding the tasks implementation and related solutions identified;
- Active involvement of the participants through the preparation of case studies on cost recovery and the resource and environmental costs;
- Agreement on the draft 2 of the Drina RBM Plan and the case studies from all beneficiary countries;
- Guidance documents related to the WG tasks discussed and clarified.
