Portuguese MEP Catarina Martins (The Left) has asked the European Commission whether the flow regime for the River Tagus under the Albufeira Convention can meet Water Framework Directive (WFD) obligations, given that it was set in 1998 based on political and economic criteria rather than scientific parameters. The question, submitted on 8 May 2026, follows the Commission's closure of a complaint by 31 Portuguese and Spanish organisations that criticised the lack of an ecologically defined flow regime for the Cedillo reservoir.
whether a pre-WFD flow regime without a proper scientific basis can ensure good ecological potential; what legal and technical grounds support the view that Cedillo's classification as a 'heavily modified water body' eliminates the need to define ecological flows; and whether the Commission intends to reassess the Albufeira Convention's compatibility with EU water and nature conservation law.
The question targets a longstanding tension between the 1998 bilateral convention—which sets a minimum annual flow based on political compromise—and the WFD's requirement for ecologically defined flows. The MEP's intervention puts pressure on the Commission to clarify its position on heavily modified water bodies and cross-border river management. The Commission is expected to reply within approximately six weeks, and its answer will signal whether it sees the current regime as compliant or in need of revision, affecting Spanish and Portuguese water authorities, environmental NGOs, and local communities dependent on the Tagus basin.
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