Memorandum of cooperation - French Agence de l'eau Artois-Picardie

The French Water Agencies

   In France, the water agencies are responsible of the water policy on the French territory. This organisation is ancient has it was created in 1964. With the creation of the European Unioin, some European directives were created in order to generelise the policies.

   Today in France, the government has defined 6 agencies (and 5 in the overseas department):

• Adour-Garonne

• Artois Picardie

• Loire-Bretagne

• Rhin-Meuse

• Rhône-Méditerranée-Corse

• Seine-Normandie

   The aim of the agencies is to put into place the directives thanks to financial instruments. For example, the licence fees allow to finance sewerage, drinking water, quality of the aquatic environment, ecosystem projects.

   The French agencies own a real know-how in the field, that is why they also offer a technical support by helping municipalities to define the best projects. The goal is to get the better quality of underground and superficial waters.

   Also an important part of their actions is the education. Taking care of the water and not wasting it is a question of behavior and attitude, that is why it is necessary to raise awarness among the population on these questions. The actions are less and less direct as they concluded agreements with the Ministry of National Education and with special institutions.

Their international actions

   The 6 agencies are leading international cooperations according to their geographical zones.

  The water agency Artois-Picardie is operating in a major party of the Eastern countries: Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Bulgaria, Letonia...

2 types of cooperation are defined:

-Decentralised cooperation: "the action must be supported by a local or territorial collectivity or by an intercommunal syndicate in the field of water or sewerage. A relay is assured to follow the good proceedings of the project : ONG, associations,..."

-Institutional cooperation: "the public sector is supporting the project through a cooperation agreement with the agency or the Minstry in charge in the concerned country or also with the structure promoting the international exchanges.

Cooperation with Georgia

   Georgia signed in 2014 an association agreement with the European Union which implies that the country needs to respect the guideline on water. The EU put into place the European Union Water Initiative Plus that aims at improving the management of water resources and at developing tools to improve the quality of water in the long term in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bielorussia, Georgia, Moldavia and Ukraine. This way the EU helps these countries to adapt their national policies to the European ones.

   2 member states of the EU got access to the financing of the program: Austria and France. The total budget for the 6 countries is of 24,8 million EUR. France is managing 6 millions EUR and 300 thousands are dedicated to Armenia, Georgia and Moldavia.

   The International Water Office (French company) is in charge of the works but they ask for the help of the Agency Artois-Piacardie to get financial and technical support (symposiums, know-how,...).

  The sort term stake for Georgia is to make a syntetic analysis of the water body and put into place mecanism in order to recover the costs and to reinvest them in the infrastrcuture.

   A memorundum of cooperation has been signed between the French Water Agency Artois-Picardie and the Ministry for the Protection of Environment and Agriculture in order to define the frame and the themes of the cooperation for 3 years.