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The EUWI+ Programme

EU
EUWI

The European Union Water Initiative Plus (EUWI+) for the Eastern Partnership programme is implemented from 2016-2020 and builds on the results of previous EU-funded regional projects in the field of water including a previous phase of the EU Water Initiative. The project is funded by the European Union. The total EU contribution to the EUWI+ is 23.5 million EUR, thus presenting the main EU commitment in the water sector in the region.

The overall objective of the EUWI+ is to improve the management of water resources, in particular of transboundary rivers, in the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries. 

The specific objective is to achieve convergence of national policies and strategies with the EU Water Framework Directive (EU WFD), Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and relevant Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), including the Water Convention and the Protocol on Water and Health. The project is divided into three result areas as follows:

  • Result 1: Legal and regulatory frameworks improved in line with the WFD, IWRM and MEAs (implemented by the UNECE and the OECD)
  • Result 2: River Basins Management Plans designed and implemented in line with the EU WFD principles (implemented by the Environment Agency Austria and the French International Office for Water)
  • Result 3: Lessons learnt regularly collected, shared and communicated to stakeholders (implemented by the French International Office for Water).


The action supports the development and implementation of pilot river basin management plans, building on the improved policy framework and ensuring a strong participation of local stakeholders.
The UNECE and OECD are jointly implementing Result 1 of the EUWI+ and are continuing to facilitate National Policy Dialogues on IWRM in the six EU Eastern Partnership countries in 2016-2020.

The Eastern Partnership (EaP) is a policy initiative launched at the Prague Summit in May 2009 and celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2019. It aims to deepen and strengthen relations between the European Union and its six Eastern neighbours: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. The current priorities for cooperation under EaP are reflected in 20 deliverables until 2020. The EUWI+ implementation contributes to the attainment of deliverable 16. In recent years, the countries of the Eastern Partnership have demonstrated willingness to align their water policies and practices with the general principles and specific requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive (EU WFD), as well as other thematic and sectoral water directives and UN Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) such as the UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention). Such commitments are also reflected in Association Agreements or other partnership agreements signed by most of the EaP countries with the EU.
 
Further details on the EUWI+ can be found at the dedicated website at http://euwipluseast.eu where information about all three EUWI+ Results is made available.
 
Most of the work done in the six EaP countries by the UNECE in the framework of the EUWI+ is presented under the ‘Country dialogues’ pages.
 
Relevant general EUWI+ documents that are not country specific can be found below:
 

 

 

Last update date: February 22, 2021
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