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The water-related legislation that has been enacted under the Environment Protection Act aims to protect water resources through the regulation and management of pressures, in order to safeguard the water bodies and the services that they provide. The legislation also provides for monitoring of our waters, in order to assess status and trends, and to adapt as necessary.

The two main pieces of legislation in force are the Water Framework Directive Regulations , which transpose the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the linked Environmental Quality Standards Directive (EQS), and the Marine Strategy Framework Regulations, which transpose the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.

The WFD encompasses inland surface waters, transitional waters, territorial waters and groundwater, while the MSFD encompasses all marine waters, extending the geographical coverage as well as the scope of the marine waters covered by the Water Framework legislation.

Both dossiers adopt an over-arching and cyclic approach:

• characterising and assessing the status of waters on the basis of various physical, chemical and biological elements
• developing and implementing measures to address identified pressures and maintain/improve the status of water and associated aquatic ecosystems
• monitoring to provide information on the status of the water resources and the effects of the measures

The aim is to adapt the measures and monitoring as needed for continuous improvement, based on knowledge acquired and lessons learnt.

Other key water-related legislation, which pre-date the WFD and MSFD, namely the Nitrates Directive (transposed through the Protection of Waters against Nitrates Pollution from Agricultural Sources Regulations) and the Urban Waste Water Directive (transposed through the Urban Waste Water Treatment Regulations), adopt a sectoral approach to address water pollution from agriculture and urban waste water respectively.

The WFD and MSFD promote an integrated approach towards the protection of water resources across sectors, and their implementation needs to consider how other legislation that has a bearing on aquatic ecosystems and water quality is being implemented.

The EU Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60/EC) – WFD – is considered to be one of the most important pieces of legislation about water produced by the European Commission in the past 20 years. This Directive aimed to be the main driver for the sustainable management of water in the EU and its member states in the years to come.

Water is not a commercial product like any other but, rather, a heritage which must be protected, defended and treated as such. Thus, the purpose of the WFD is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater. It would thus lead to the prevention of further deterioration as well as to protect and enhance the status of aquatic ecosystems. It requires that all inland and coastal waters reach at least good ecological and chemical status by 2015 and maintaining good status or better thereafter. Good water quality will contribute to securing the drinking water supply for the population.

The WFD promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources and aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, through specific measures for the progressive reduction and phasing out of discharges, emissions and losses of priority hazardous substances.

The WFD adopts an over-arching and cyclic approach:

1. characterising and assessing the status of water bodies on the basis of various physical, chemical and biological elements
2. developing and implementing measures to address identified pressures and maintain/improve the status of the water bodies
3. monitoring to provide information on the status of the water bodies and the effects of the measures.

The outcome of the above are encompassed in the Member States’ River Basin Management Plans, or Water Catchment Management Plan in Malta’s case, which are reviewed every six years.

The aim is to adapt the measures and monitoring as needed for continuous improvement, based on knowledge acquired and lessons learnt.

In Malta, the WFD is transposed in national legislation through the Water Policy Framework Regulations (S.L. 549.100) which also transpose other closely linked EU legislation, in particular the Environmental Quality Standards Directive (Directive 208/105/EC) which lays down environmental quality standards (EQS) for priority substances and certain other pollutants, with the aim of achieving good surface water chemical status.

The Water Framework Directive was complemented by the adoption of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (Directive 2008/56/EC) establishing a framework for community action in the field of marine environmental policy. Through this legislation, the definition of marine waters has been extended to cover waters, the seabed and subsoil on the seaward side of the baseline from which the extent of territorial waters is measured extending to the outmost reach of the area where a Member State has and/or exercises jurisdictional rights, in accordance with UNCLOS.

Nature Directives

The Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, together known as the Nature Directives, were put in place to safeguard against the loss of nature, and they are the cornerstone of the EU nature protection policy.

The overall objective of the two directives is the conservation of habitats and species across the EU, and these two laws have led to the creation of Natura 2000, the world’s biggest network of protected areas.

The habitats and species that are targeted by this legislation are considered to be of Community interest and include a wide range of rare, threatened, endangered, vulnerable or endemic animal and plant species as well as around 200 rare and characteristic habitat types.

To quote the legislation, “…conservation means a series of measures required to maintain or restore the natural habitats and the populations of species of wild fauna and flora at a favourable status…”.

To this end, sites that are important for the conservation of key habitats and species are identified and designated as protected areas. These sites are then proposed to be included in the Natura 2000 network and Conservation Objectives are developed. These define the overall target for the habitat types and/or species (for which the site has been designated) in order for it to contribute to maintaining or achieving favourable conservation status of the habitats and species concerned.

Once the sites have been accepted into the Natura 2000 network, there is a six-year period within which Conservation (management) Measures need to be developed and implemented, with the aim to achieve the Conservation Objectives that have been set.

While the identification of sites for designation as protected areas must be based solely on scientific principles, the Conservation Measures subsequently developed must take into account socio-economic factors so as to ensure that a balance is achieved and that there is support from the various stakeholders and users of these sites.

The habitats and species of conservation importance for which protected areas need to be designated are listed in Annex I and Annex II of the Habitats Directive, and Annex I of the Birds Directive.

In Malta’s context, there are four marine habitats, three marine species and three seabird species, for which marine protected areas had to be designated:

• Habitats: Posidonia beds, reefs, caves and sandbanks
• Species: Loggerhead turtle, Bottlenose dolphin and the Maltese topshell
• Seabirds: Scopoli’s shearwater, Yelkouan shearwater and Mediterranean storm petrel.

The EU Nature Directives have been transposed into Maltese law via the Flora, Fauna and Natural Habitats Protection Regulations (S.L. 549.44) and the Conservation of Wild Birds Regulations (S.L.549.42).

Protected areas designated pursuant to this legislation are published as Government Notices, the most recent being G.N. 682 of 2018 through which the network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) was expanded in 2018.

The legislation also provides for other avenues of protection, separate from the protected areas process:

• Annex IV of the Habitats Directive (Schedule V of S.L.549.44) lists animal and plant species that are strictly protected, i.e. they cannot be caught, picked, handled or killed, irrespective of where they are found within the European Union. These include all cetacean species (i.e. all dolphins, whales and porpoises); various species of turtles including the loggerhead turtle; various molluscs, including the date mussel, the Maltese top shell and noble pen shell; and the long-spined sea urchin.
• Annex V of the Habitats Directive (Schedule VII of S.L. 549.44) lists animal and plant species of Community interest for which management measures may be necessary in relation to their taking in the wild and exploitation, such as the Mediterranean slipper lobster and selected maerl-forming algae.

S.L. 549.44 also provides for the implementation of, among others, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (the Bern Convention), the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, and the Protocol for Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity in the Mediterranean of the Barcelona Convention.

In this regard it should be noted that the Regulations also list (in Schedule VI) species of national interest that are strictly protected, including various species of sea horse, rays, skates, sharks, molluscs, starfish, corals, sponges, algae and sea firs, many of which are also protected under the SPA/BD Protocol of the Barcelona Convention and the Bern Convention.

Species of national interest for which management measures may be necessary in relation to their talking in the wild and exploitation are also listed (in Schedule VIII). These include a number of fish and echinoderms commonly caught in Maltese waters, such as the dusky grouper, swordfish, blue fin tuna, brown meagre, rock urchin, European lobster, and flat lobster.