On 10 December 2019, the European Commission published its final report (here, executive summary here) of the fitness check of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and its sister directives including the Floods Directive (FD).
The fitness check assessed whether the Directives are fit for purpose by examining their performance against five criteria (in line with Commission’s Better Regulation agenda): effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, relevance and EU added value.
Regarding the FD, the Commission finds that overall it is too early to draw conclusions since the first implementation cycle only started in 2016. However, the fitness check finds that the FD has improved flood risk management in Member States. On the five criteria, the Commission finds:
- Effectiveness:
- Overall the implementation has been satisfactory and has led to a more proactive approach to floods.
- Climate change is not routinely considered as part of the implementation of the Floods Directive.
- Private insurance coverage to protect against flood damage is identified as low in the EU.
- Challenges in land use planning could reduce the effectiveness of the Floods Directive implementation in some Member States.
- Challenges remain regarding incorporation of green infrastructure/nature-based solutions within Flood Risk Management Plans (FRMPs).
- Efficiency:
- Costs of flood prevention and mitigation between 2016 and 2021 estimate to run to €14 billion in the EU but are generally considered worthwhile investments based on estimated savings from prevented damage.
- The FD has instilled a different way of thinking about flooding, looking to identify and mitigate risk rather than reacting to flooding
- Relevance:
- Still important and relevant. However, there is uncertainty as to how climate change is dealt with in the Floods Directive.
- Coherence:
- More cooperation is needed in implementation in order to avoid counter-productive measures (e.g. grey infrastructure measures).
- EU added-value:
- Significant, and the FD has had numerous benefits by bringing in centralised monitoring of Member States flood risk management planning.