’Commission will continue its efforts to overcome the lack of knowledge on sediment quality in the EU’

Abstract

This SedNet1 corner gives special attention to the response of the European Commission to contaminated-sediment related questions of the European Parliament. Furthermore, this corner briefly addresses the 3rd SedNet conference and draws attention to the SedNet booklet and the future of SedNet. (i.e. fauna living in the sediment) and the scientific uncertainties in relation to the exposure as part of the risk assessment in sediments. On this basis, the current position of the Commission is that it will be left to the Member States to identify sediments where remedial action is needed on the basis of the results from the ecological monitoring under the Water Framework Directive. Benthic organisms are one quality element to determine the 'good ecological status' under the Directive. If the sediment quality is too poor to achieve 'good ecological status', Member States are required to initiate appropriate actions in line with Articles 4 and 11 of the Directive. This applies also to cross-border pollution from sediments, since such measures need to be coordinated in an international river basin management plan as set out by Article 13. Irrespectively of these effective provisions under the Water Framework Directive to enable the Member States to tackle the pollution of sediments, the Commission will continue its efforts to overcome the lack of knowledge on sediment quality in the EU. To this end, the Commission will continue discussions with the European Environment Agency to overcome this deficit. In addition, the Commission will consider whether an appropriate research project in the action on support for policy under the 6th Framework Programme may be another possibility to address this issue. In that respect the research projects carried out in the context of the European Sediment Research Network (SedNet) activities have been very valuable."