Historical overview of the European legislative framework

The first wave of water-related legislation took place between 1975 and 1980, resulting in a number of directives and decisions that defined water quality objectives for specific types of water, such as the 1975 Drinking Water Abstraction Directive or emission limit values, and for specific water uses, such as the 1976 Dangerous Substances Directive and its directives on individual substances (1982 to 1986). Since then, the question of which approach was the most appropriate has been the subject of lengthy scientific and political debate. Subsequently, more recent legislation at both European and Member State level has been based on a "combined approach" where limit values and quality objectives have been used to reinforce each other. In one particular situation, the more stringent approach is being applied. The new European water policy and its operational tool, the WFD (2000/60/EC), are...