Four working groups were created to continue the European work on the definition of the conditions for the implementation of the Water Framework Directive.

France is jointly chairing the IRBM (Integrated River Basin Management) Group with Spain .

IOWater is providing technical support to the French Water Directorate for following-up this Working Group: constitutive meeting in Paris on 10 and 11 March, plenary meeting in Barcelona on 2 and 3 July 2003.

The work dealt with the progress made by the drafting groups on economic aspects, and with the opportunity of thinking about measurement programs.

It also dealt with a guide on wetlands and with the test phase that could start on the pilot basins.

Within the " Leornardo Da Vinci" programme to support professional training in Europe ; the Education General Directorate of the European Commission selected two projects submitted by IOWater :

" Tech'III "

" Tech'III " is a feasibility study for the " Europeanisation " of a training programme for high level technicians. The training will be based on the University diploma, namely "Operation and maintenance of plants and networks" which is provided by the University and the Institute of Technology of Limoges , the Ahun Agricultural College in partnership with IOWater , in Limoges -La Souterraine .

The European partners involved are from Italy ( Hydrocontrol ), Germany (BEW) and Romania (CFDPDA) together with the Techware European network as regards the dissemination of results.

Students will receive this training and carry out practical training in companies located in 2 or 3 different countries to strengthen their knowledge of various contexts and to improve their autonomy and flexibility.

" Limousin Water"

" Limousin Water" is a project for providing flexibility to young people who are trained in Limoges and La Souterraine to enable them undertake part of their training in other European countries. 15 students from the National School of Engineers of Limoges (ENSIL) are now in Belgium , Greece , Italy , Germany , Poland and the United Kingdom , and a Romanian student in France .

Some scholarships are still available before mid-2001: should any company be interested, do not hesitate.

The Topic Centre on Water was set up in 1995 by the European Environment Agency (EEA).

It covers 31 European countries and is producing reliable and comparable information for the decision-makers and the public.

In some of its areas of responsibility it entrusts "Topic Centres" to collect and organise data and produce environmental indicators and evaluations for its own needs.

IOWater has been member of the European Topic Centre on Water (ETC/WTR) since 1995.

Eurowaternet and Waterbase

The Topic Centre has designed a European network for water monitoring: EUROWATERNET. It helps the member States to progressively develop this network.

The WATERBASE database gathers the data issued from this network and will provide access to the public on the Web.

Eurowaternet emissions

Within this framework, IOWater is defining a method for collecting and organising the data called "EUROWATERNET- Emissions". It aims at retrieving the information on the polluting emissions of all kinds into water, requested by the new Water Framework Directive.

In order to demonstrate its feasibility, IOWater created a database including the data on emissions available in different countries covered by the EEA. It currently gathers 100,000 emission data concerning 3,000 geographic areas.

A test is also under way to determine whether the data available in the pilot basins, which are testing the "pressure and impact" aspects for the Framework Directive, may enable the meeting of the needs of the Directive and also of the EEA.

The positive results of this work enable us to hope for the "EUROWATERNET-Emissions" sustainability, with the publication of a guide for the collection and implementation of a yearly data collection in all the EEA countries.

Contact : OIEau