[7] The Ebro River Transfer, a project from the Spanish National Hydrological Plan of 2001 was highly criticised as being contrary to the principles of the EU Water Framework Directive, and later put on hold.

The project planned to transfer huge amounts of water from the Ebro River to the south-east of Spain with the construction of 120 dams.

[8] In October 2007, the European Commission formally notified Ireland that their initial adoption of legislation was insufficient, followed by a reasoned opinion in November 2011.

[9] Ireland adopted amended legislation in 2009, 2010 and 2014, although shortcomings were identified in authorization and registration controls for water abstraction, impoundment and hydromorphology changes, such as dams.

[10] Despite new legislation in June and December 2022, the Commission considered the efforts of Irish authorities as unsatisfactory and referred Ireland to the Court of Justice.

An RBD is defined as "the area of land and sea, made up of one or more neighbouring river basins together with their associated groundwaters and coastal waters".