Implementation of the Flood Risk Management Directive as regards the rivers Este and Lühe

4.7.2016

Question for written answer E-005468-16
to the Commission
Rule 130
Jan Philipp Albrecht (Verts/ALE)

1. Does the Commission think that for the purposes of implementing the Flood Risk Management Directive (Directive 2007/60/EC) and drawing up flood risk management plans, the Este and the Lühe should have been listed as part of the Elbe river basin district and a preliminary flood risk assessment produced, followed no later than 22 December 2013 by hazard and risk maps?

2. Does the Commission think it right that the lower Este should be subsumed under the term ‘coast’ and that the upper Este, which, according to the information available to the questioner, has an important role to play in inland flood protection, should not be mentioned at all for the purposes of implementing the Flood Risk Management Directive? As a result of this situation, in which the Este and the Lühe are, in practice, totally excluded from the implementation of the directive, is there a danger that Germany might fail to meet its European flood protection obligations?