Can Natura 2000 Sites Benefit from River Basin Management Planning Under a Changing Climate? Lessons from Germany - Wetlands and Water Framework Directive: Protection, Management and Climate Change - page 32

according to Article 2 a, Art. 3 para. 1, 2 a, b and para. 5, and Annex II SEA-
Directive, which also requires public participation (Art. 6 SEA-Directive) (cf. Carter
and Howe 2006 , p. 288 et seq.). Therefore, the PoM is subject to public participation,
too. Moreover, the PoM can be also subject to the Habitats Regulations Appraisal
according to Article 6 para. 3 HD.
The RBMPs and the PoMs had to be finalized and published by 22 December

2009 at the latest (Art. 13 para. 6 and Art. 11 para. 7 WFD). They are to be
reviewed and updated until 22 December 2015 and every 6 years thereafter (Art. 13
para. 7 and Art. 11 para. 8 WFD). Their cyclical updating is a re

ning process
based on improved data and understanding and allowing for real changes of cir-
cumstances in the river basins (Foundation for Water Research 2012 ).

3.2.2 Levels of River Basin Management Planning

River basin districts cross not only the borders of a number of Federal States, but in
some cases also national borders. Cross-border cooperation is thus obligatory for
both states and countries when drawing up management plans and programmes of
measures (Art. 3 and 13 WFD). This requires the coordination of the contents of
PoMs and management plans across both state and national boundaries. Parts of a
total of ten river basin districts lie in Germany (Danube, Elbe, Rhine, Eider, Schlei/
Trave, Weser, Oder, Meuse, Ems, Warnow/Peene).
The WFD stipulates that for river basin districts that lie wholly within the
territory of a Member State, a management plan (national management plan) must
be produced for the river basin district in question (Art. 13 para. 1 WFD). The
drawing up of a single plan for international river basins is also desirable (inter-
national management plan). If no joint plans are produced, then the plans should at
least cover that part of the river basin district that lies within the territory of the
Member State (national management plan for part of the river basin district) (cf.
Art. 13 para. 2 WFD). In Germany there are several cases where a number of
planning documents have been produced that at different levels cover the same area
of the river basin in question and also cases where a number of planning documents
have been produced covering smaller, adjoining sub-areas of one river basin. For
instance, for the Elbe a joint plan for the entire (international) river basin district has
been published; in addition, a national management plan and its associated PoM
including an environmental report have been produced; and, furthermore, supple-
mentary plans for various sub-areas of the same river basin district have been
produced and circulated at the level of the Federal States. For the national river
basin of the Rhine there is no complete plan; the relevant plans have instead been
produced for four national and

rst
of the three planning phases of WFD implementation (up to the end of 2009) saw
substantially more than ten PoMs and ten RBMPs being produced for the ten river
basins in Germany (Posselt et al. 2012 , p. 75 et seq.). There are, in addition, the
environmental reports made on the PoMs within the framework of the SEA.

five international planning areas. As a result, the