Several judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union have clarified the concept of deterioration of status. A definition of deterioration of status should therefore be introduced into Directive 2000/60/EC. As referred to in Annex V to that Directive, the status of a surface water body comprises both its ecological and chemical status and the status of a groundwater body comprises both its quantitative and chemical status. Instead of referring to each of those elements separately in the definition, reference should be made simply to Annex V to that Directive. If the status of a quality element for surface water assessed as bad or failing to achieve good or the status of a quality element for groundwater assessed as poor deteriorates further, that deterioration should also be considered as a deterioration of the status of the water body.
Text as published in the Official Journal, reproduced verbatim (including any typographical quirks of the source). For the authentic version, see EUR-Lex.
