in particular the obligation to publish by december river basin management plans has been a strong driver for water management in eu member states eastern neighbours are also interested in the application of the provisions of the wfd belarus has schemes for the complex use and protection of waters and is interested in seeing how these compare with eu river basin management plans due to lack of resources and capacity in the eastern neighbours the preparation of river basin management plans has been mostly supported by external donors but the implementation of the developed plans in some cases advances very slowly