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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

| 170. | As already noted, for adverse effects to be significant, it is not necessary that they result in a change of classification for purposes of the Water Framework Directive – although a change to a lower status classification would be an example of a significant adverse effect. By way of analogy, in Case C-461/13, Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland eV v Bundesrepublik Deutschland, which concerned the Water Framework Directive, the Court decided that the concept of ‘deterioration of the status’ of a body of surface water in Article 4(1)(a)(i) of the Water Framework Directive must be interpreted as meaning that there is deterioration as soon as the status of at least one of the quality elements, within the meaning of Annex V to the directive, falls by one class, even if that fall does not result in a fall in classification of the body of surface water as a whole (159). However, if the quality element concerned, within the meaning of that annex, is already in the lowest class, any deterioration of that element constitutes a ‘deterioration of the status’ of a body of surface water, within the meaning of Article 4(1)(a)(i). (160)

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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.