Pan-European information needs on quality of freshwater

In Europe, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires EU Member States to achieve good ecological and chemical status of their water bodies by the year 2015. In 2009, Member States reported the status of their water bodies, including pressures, impacts and measures taken, to the European Commission. This huge amount of data has been analysed since then and the results were published by the end of 2012 in a series of reports by the European Environment Agency and its European Topic Centre on inland, coastal and marine waters. The political analysis was published by the end of 2012 as "a Blueprint to safeguard Europe's water resources" by the European Commission, including accompanying documents. This article reviews the main findings and identifies the main areas for further research need.