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COMMISSION NOTICE Guidelines providing a common understanding of the term ‘environmental damage’ as defined in Article 2 of Directive 2004/35/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage · European Union

| 137. | The definition of ‘ecological status’ refers to the quality of the structure and functioning of aquatic ecosystems associated with surface waters, classified in accordance with Annex V of the Water Framework Directive. Annex V refers to five sub-classes or divisions of surface water: rivers; lakes; transitional waters; coastal waters; artificial and heavily modified water bodies. Rivers, lakes and artificial and heavily modified water bodies are all, in fact, further divisions of the sub-class ‘inland water’ referred to in Box 9 above and all are expressly defined in the Water Framework Directive – see Box 10 above. ‘Ecological status’ relates to rivers, lakes, transitional waters and coastal waters. Annex V also sets out quality elements relevant to these different sub-classes and divisions of surface water: biological elements; hydromorphological elements supporting the biological elements; general physico-chemical elements supporting the biological elements; specific pollutants for which national environmental quality standards must be set.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-25 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.