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Transboundary Water Governance in the European Union

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European Water Law and Hydropolitics

Part of the book series: Water Governance - Concepts, Methods, and Practice ((WGCMP))

Abstract

Since the 1970s the EU has adopted a large number of legislative acts and strategic documents relating to freshwaters that, among others, cover transboundary cooperation questions extensively. The EU is also party to a number of international agreements, most prominently the UNECE Water Convention, that define substantive and procedural obligations for the joint management and protection of shared river basins. In addition, EU member states and neighbouring countries concluded basin-specific agreements for most of the continent’s numerous international watercourses and lakes. These basin arrangements are further supplemented by a comprehensive web of bilateral water treaties. Such European model of multi-layered transboundary water governance has been universally praised as the most comprehensive, sophisticated and progressive transnational water regime in the world. Yet, it also suffers from a number of important shortcomings such as the dominance of procedural requirements, missing or weak sanctions, the almost complete ignorance of water quantity considerations or the insufficient collaboration between the UNECE and the EU’s proper water policy centres.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Treaty on European Union, Maastricht, 7 February 1992.

  2. 2.

    Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Rome, 25 March 1957.

  3. 3.

    Convention on the International Commission for the Protection of the Elbe, Magdeburg, 8 October 1990.

  4. 4.

    Convention on Cooperation for the Protection and Sustainable Use of the Danube, Sofia, 29 June 1994.

  5. 5.

    Agreement on the Protection of the River Scheldt, Charleville Mezieres, 26 April 1994.

  6. 6.

    Agreement on the Protection of the River Meuse, Charleville Mezieres, 26 April 1994.

  7. 7.

    Convention on the International Commission for the Protection of the Oder, Wroclaw, 11 April 1996.

  8. 8.

    Convention on the Co-operation for the Protection and the Sustainable Use of the Waters of the Luso-Spanish River Basins, Albufeira, 30 November 1998.

  9. 9.

    Convention on the Protection of the Rhine, Bern, 12 April 1999.

  10. 10.

    Framework Agreement on the Sava River Basin, Kranjska Gora, 3 December 2002.

  11. 11.

    Agreement between the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Albania and the Government of the Republic of Macedonia for the protection and sustainable development of Lake Ohrid and its watershed, Skopje, 17 June 2004.

  12. 12.

    https://www.unece.org/oes/nutshell/member_states_representatives.html (accessed 12 February 2019).

  13. 13.

    Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, Espoo, 25 February 1991 (Espoo Convention); the Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents, Helsinki, 17 March 1992; Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, Aarhus, 25 June 1998 (Aarhus Convention) and the Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, Kiev, 21 May 2003 (Kiev Protocol).

  14. 14.

    Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and Lakes, Helsinki, 17 March 1992.

  15. 15.

    Protocol on Water and Health to the 1992 Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, London, 17 June 1999.

  16. 16.

    Protocol on Civil Liability and Compensation for Damage Caused by the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents on Transboundary Waters to the 1992 Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes and to the 1992 Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents, Kiev, 21 May 2003.

  17. 17.

    In his address to the sixth session of the Meeting of the Parties on 28 November 2012, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had stated: “Since its launch twenty years ago, this Convention has significantly enhanced the integrated norms and standard for cooperation, which makes it a best practice model at the international level.” http://www.unece.org/?id=32154&type=111 (accessed 12 February 2019).

  18. 18.

    Although the Convention is commonly called as the Danube Protection or the Danube River Protection Convention (to distinguish it from the Convention regarding the regime of navigation on the Danube, Belgrade, 18 August 1948), for sake of brevity this study will refer to all basin treaties by the name of the respective river only.

  19. 19.

    http://www.icpdr.org/main/danube-basin (accessed 12 February 2019).

  20. 20.

    See footnote 4.

  21. 21.

    C-36/98, Spain v. Council, ECR 2001, I-00779, para 63.

  22. 22.

    https://www.iksr.org/en/rhine/ (accessed 12 February 2019).

  23. 23.

    See footnote 9.

  24. 24.

    Agreement concerning the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine against Pollution, Bern, 29 April 1963; Convention for the protection of the Rhine against chemical pollution, Bonn, 3 December 1976.

  25. 25.

    http://www.ikse-mkol.org/en/themen/die-elbe/ (accessed 12 February 2019).

  26. 26.

    See footnote 3

  27. 27.

    http://www.mkoo.pl/index.php?mid=2&lang=EN (accessed 12 February 2019).

  28. 28.

    See footnote 7.

  29. 29.

    http://www.savacommission.org/basin_about (accessed 12 February 2019).

  30. 30.

    See footnote 10.

  31. 31.

    International Agreement on the River Meuse (Accord international sur la Meuse), Gent, 3 December 2002.

  32. 32.

    Treaty between the Hungarian People’s Republic and the Republic of Austria Concerning the Regulation of Water Economy Questions in the Frontier Region, Vienna, 9 April 1956.

  33. 33.

    Agreement between the Government of the Polish People’s Republic and the Government of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics Concerning the Use of the Water Resources in Frontier Waters, Warsaw, 17 July 1964.

  34. 34.

    E.g. the Convention between the Swiss Federal Council and the Government of the French Republic on the Protection of Geneva Lake Against Pollution, 16 November 1962.

  35. 35.

    E.g. the Agreement between France and Switzerland concerning the Intervention of Bodies in charge Fighting against Accidental Water Pollution by Hydrocarbons or Other Substances Capable of Altering the Water, Geneva, 17 December 1977.

  36. 36.

    Treaty between Czechoslovakia and Hungary concerning the construction and operation of the Gabčíkovo- Nagymaros System of Locks, Budapest, 16 September 1977.

  37. 37.

    Arrangement between the State Council of the Republic and Canton of Geneva and the Prefect of Haute-Savoie on the Protection and Recharge of the Franco-Swiss Genevois Aquifers, Geneva, 9 June 1978.

  38. 38.

    Agreement between the Republic of Finland and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Concerning Frontier Watercourses, Helsinki, 24 April 1964.

  39. 39.

    Agreement between the Government of the French Republic and the Spanish Government relating to Lake Lanoux, Madrid, 12 July 1958.

  40. 40.

    See footnote 8

  41. 41.

    Protocol amending the Convention on Cooperation for the Protection and Sustainable Use of the Waters of Luso-Spanish River Basins signed 30 November 1998, 4 April 2008.

  42. 42.

    For example, the first bathing water directive (Directive 76/160/EEC)—adopted in 1976—required compliance with 19 (!) quality parameters, ranging from microbiological pollutants to heavy metals. No wonder that by the time the proposal for a new directive was tabled by the Commission in 2003 practically all member states were condemned by the European Court of Justice for non-compliance. Subsequent research on the health impacts of bathing waters revealed that most of the original parameters were indeed irrelevant for bathers’ health. As a result, the current bathing water directive (2006/7/EC) calls for the observance of only two microbiological parameters.

  43. 43.

    Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy.

  44. 44.

    Decision No. 1386/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 November 2013 on a General Union Environment Action Programme to 2020 “Living well, within the limits of our planet”.

  45. 45.

    E.g. the Environmental Action Programme lays down important resource efficiency goals such as to ensure, by 2020, that water abstraction respects available renewable water resource limits (para 41). Similarly, the Blueprint cautiously introduces the notion of “ecological flows” into EU water policy that is supposed to fill the gap created by the almost complete ignorance of river flow quantity management questions by the system of the WFD, underlying that “there is a need in many EU river basins to put quantitative water management on a much more solid foundation” (Sect. 2.1). Also see Sect. 10.1.3.

  46. 46.

    C-461/13, Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland e.V. v. Federal Republic of Germany, ECLI:EU:C:2015:433.

  47. 47.

    Council Directive 91/271/EEC of 21 May 1991 concerning urban waste-water treatment.

  48. 48.

    Council Directive 91/676/EEC of 12 December 1991 concerning the protection of waters against pollution caused by nitrates from agricultural sources.

  49. 49.

    Directive 2008/105/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on environmental quality standards in the field of water policy.

  50. 50.

    Directive 2006/118/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on the protection of groundwater against pollution and deterioration.

  51. 51.

    Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 on industrial emissions (integrated pollution prevention and control).

  52. 52.

    Council Directive 98/83/EC of 3 November 1998 on the quality of water intended for human consumption.

  53. 53.

    Directive 2006/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 February 2006 concerning the management of bathing water quality.

  54. 54.

    Directive 2008/56/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 establishing a framework for community action in the field of marine environmental policy.

  55. 55.

    Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment; Directive 2001/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 June 2001 on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment.

  56. 56.

    Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 on public access to environmental information.

  57. 57.

    Directive 2003/35/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 on environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage.

  58. 58.

    Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild flora and fauna.

  59. 59.

    Directive 2007/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2007 on the assessment and management of flood risks.

  60. 60.

    http://ec.europa.eu/environment/legal/law/statistics.htm (accessed 12 February 2019).

  61. 61.

    The Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) is essentially the combination of a guidance toolbox, a continuously updated work programme and an information exchange platform, maintained by the Commission together with the network of member states’ water directors. The main products of the CIS process have been more than thirty guidance documents and almost two dozen thematic and technical reports. The CIS is supported by a specific electronic water information database (Water Information System for Europe—WISE).

  62. 62.

    http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:32000L0060 (accessed 12 February 2019).

  63. 63.

    http://ec.europa.eu/environment/legal/law/pdf/statistics_sector.pdf (accessed 12 February 2019).

  64. 64.

    http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:32000L0060 ( accessed 12 February 2019).

  65. 65.

    C-36/98, Spain v. Council, ECR 2001, I-00779. Also see Sect. 10.1.3.

  66. 66.

    C-461/13, Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland e.V. v. Federal Republic of Germany, ECLI:EU:C:2015:433. Also see Sect. 8.3.3.

  67. 67.

    http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/water/dm#c1=Data&c1=Graph&c1=Indicator&c1=Interactive+data&c1=Interactive+map&c1=Map&c0=10&b_start=0 (accessed 12 February 2019).

  68. 68.

    See e.g. opening remarks of Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General at the 2013 Budapest Water Summit, urging non-UNECE countries to join the Convention. https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2013-10-08/secretary-generals-opening-remarks-budapest-water-summit-prepared (accessed 12 February 2019).

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  1. Faculty of Water Science, University of Public Service, Budapest, Hungary

    Gábor Baranyai

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Baranyai, G. (2020). Transboundary Water Governance in the European Union. In: European Water Law and Hydropolitics. Water Governance - Concepts, Methods, and Practice. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22541-4_8

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