The European Commission (EC) started today two new infringement procedures in the field of water management.

The first procedure concerns failure to fulfill the obligation to report on a monitoring program and on a plan of measures that Bulgaria should develop under the Maritime Strategy Framework Directive.

Actions have been taken to compensate for the delays, and Bulgaria has already reported the updated monitoring programs - on February 10, 2023. Work is underway to update the plan of measures.

In addition to Bulgaria, the EC launched infringement procedures for non-implementation of the Maritime Strategy Framework Directive against 8 other member states – Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, and Malta.

The second infringement procedure is related to the failure to comply with the obligation to report the third River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) and the second Flood Risk Management Plans (FRMPs) under the Water Framework Directive and the Flood Risk Assessment and Management Directive.

As soon as taking office, Minister Rositsa Karamfilova undertook actions for an active dialogue with the representatives of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), who are implementing an Agreement to assist the MOEW in the development of the RBMPs and FRMPs in order to address the accumulated delays.

As a result of the actions taken, the FRMPs were published for public discussion on December 15^th 2022: https://www.moew.government.bg/bg/vodi/planove-za-upravlenie/planove-za-upravlenie-na-riska- ot-navodneniya-purn/planove-za-upravlenie-na-riska-ot-navodneniya-2022-2027/  

Regarding the RBMP, at the request of Minister Karamfilova, at the end of January 2023, the IBRD presented an action program with deadlines for drafting the RBMP projects and for compensating for the currently accumulated delay. According to the developed proposal, the last sections of the four RBMPs will be presented by March 20^th 2023 in English. In parallel, the process of their translation will be organized, which will allow the drafts to be published for public consultation at the beginning of April and to reduce the delay to one month.

The Ministry of Environment and Water will continue to publish regular information on the progress of the work on the preparation of the RBMPs and FRMPs.

Apart from Bulgaria, the EC has started infringement procedures against 15 other Member States that have not developed their plans under the Water Framework Directive and the Flood Risk Assessment and Management Directive.

More information about the EC decisions from today can be found here:

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/inf_23_525