This Commission Staff Working Document is part of the Commission’s third implementation report2 as required by Article 18 of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and is based on the assessment of the River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) reported by Member States. The report describes in detail the key aspects of the results of the assessment based on the information reported by Member States and other related official sources of information, and provides a view of the status of implementation of the WFD across the EU. This document is accompanied by associated country specific Commission Staff Working Documents describing the results of the assessment by the Commission of the RBMPs relating to each Member State, as well as for the EEA state Norway. All are an integral part of the Commission's Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's Waters and are closely linked to a report on the State of Waters produced by the European Environment Agency.