Pilot River Basin outcome report : testing of Article 5 related guidance documents

During the 2001/2002 Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) a series of guidance documents (GDs) concerning all major aspects of its implementation were developed by working groups including representatives of Member States, accession countries, national experts and the European Commission. In order to test and cross validate these GDs, a network of pilot river basins (PRBs) has been established. This document reports on the experience, conclusions and recommendations agreed by the PRBs during the testing of the Article 5 related GDs of the WFD.